Prosecutor Arolin Lemos He highlighted this Friday night that all the evidence that has been provided in the preliminary hearing of the process for administrative corruption of the Coral and Coral 5G operations “have met the principles of legality, relevance and usefulness”.
“In due course, the court will have the opportunity to assess the evidence provided by the Public Ministry, which was collected in compliance with due process of law,” said Lemos, from the Specialized Prosecutor for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca).
In addition, it described as weak the foundations of the defenses in the preliminary hearing that is known in the Sixth Court of the Instruction of the National District.
“Today we have continued with the process called Coral and Coral 5G at the preliminary hearing stage. At this current moment, several defense documents were known and in a particular way they established their foundations, which are certainly weak, according to the accusation of the Public Ministry that has to do with front manwith money laundering and with association of criminals”, he detailed.
“According to the evidence and the accusations that we as the Public Ministry have presented, they have been weak,” he reiterated.
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When offering the progress of the process to journalists from the judicial source who interviewed him as he left the court, the prosecutor explained that at the hearing this Friday, the people linked to the accused were presenting their defense briefs. Julio Camilo de los Santos Viola.
Lemos represented the Public Ministry at the hearing together with court attorney Mirna Ortiz, Pepca Litigation coordinator, and prosecutors Jonathan Elías Pérez, Miguel Collado and Marinel Brea.
Judge Yanibet Rivas Méndez, of the Sixth Investigative Court of the National District, after concluding the session this Friday, postponed the hearing until next Monday, March 13, starting at 9:00 in the morning.
In the present stage of the process, Judge Rivas Méndez listens to the arguments of the defense lawyers regarding the accusation of the Public Ministry.
In the process, the accusing body requested the opening of a trial against the major General Adán Cáceres Silvestre, Juan Carlos Torres Robiou and the others accused of integrating the administrative corruption network dismantled with the Coral and Coral 5G operations.
Among those accused of Operation Coral, in addition to Cáceres Silvestre, there are also Rossy Guzmán Sánchez (La Pastora), police corporal Tanner Antonio Flete Guzmán (son of the nun), police colonel Rafael Núñez de Aza and Army sergeant Alejandro José Montero Cruz.
While Operation Coral 5G, derived from Coral, are prosecuted in addition to General Torres Robiou (FARD), Boanerges Reyes Batista (ARD) and Julio Camilo de los Santos Viola (FARD), as well as the captain of the ship (ARD) Franklin Mata Flores and José Manuel Rosario Pirón.
The process is also being followed against Carlos Lantigua, Alfredo Pichardo, Erasmo Roger Pérez, Jehohanan Lucía Rodríguez, Yehudy Blandesmil Guzmán and Esmeralda Ortega Polanco.
The accusing body filed charges in this process against 48 people, 30 natural persons and 18 legal persons, who are accused of defrauding the Dominican State with more than 4,000 million pesos.
The network of corruption operated in the Presidential Security Corps (Cusep), the Specialized Tourist Security Corps (Cestur) and the National Council for Children and Adolescents (Conani).