Santo Domingo.- During the hearing to learn about the measure of coercion in the process being followed against the former executive director of the National Health Insurance (SeNaSa), Santiago Hazimyour lawyer Miguel Valerio assured that his client broke down in tears in the middle of the courtroom while the arguments related to his state of health were presented.
Hazim, who figures as the main accused in the process that investigates the so-called Operation Cobrahas been accused by the Public Ministry of leading an alleged network that would have handled resources fraudulently for more than 15 billion pesos.
Valerio explained that Hazim suffers multiple sclerosisa serious neurological disease that requires continuous and highly specialized treatment, which he has received since the year 2011 under medical supervision, even in a hospital in the United States. He indicated that this treatment is not optional, but essential to avoid a severe deterioration of his condition.
“The treatment of multiple sclerosis is not something that one wants or stops wanting, it is something that is followed,” said the lawyer, while pointing out that his client has been hospitalized twice during this process and that he had to undergo a third hospitalization, which he decided not to attend in order to appear in court.
According to Valerio, Hazim cried when he stated that he considers himself an honest person and that he fears that preventive detention could cause irreversible consequences to his health, such as a sudden death, paraplegia or quadriplegia.
“That is their medical reality,” said the jurist.
The defense raised before the court the application of a humanitarian thesisrequesting that, in accordance with the law for people with serious illnesses, the imposition of an alternative measure to prison, such as house arrestto guarantee both your submission to the process and the continuity of your medical treatment.
At this stage of the process, three of the accused have admitted the facts and confessed before the judge for having delivered large sums of money to former director Hazim and other officials of the institution. The defendants Eduardo Read Estrella, Cinty Acosta Sención and Heydi Mariela Pineda acknowledged their participation in the scheme and indicated that they had made payments as part of the irregularities investigated.
The court will continue to evaluate the evidence presented and decide on the measure of coercion to be applied. The Public Ministry requested 18 months of preventive detention for the accused and that the case be declared complex processingwhile the investigation into one of the largest alleged frauds in the history of Dominican public health deepens.
