Santiago.- The Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of this city issued coercive measures against a man accused of electoral crime by falsifying public documents and signatures of a judge, to avoid presiding over an Electoral College, during the celebration of the last presidential elections and congressional meetings on May 19.
Judge Stephanie Santiago Reyes imposed against Domingo Ramírez Rodríguez a financial guarantee of $200 thousand pesos, periodic presentation and impediment to leaving the country, in a hearing in which the Prosecutor’s Office was represented by prosecutor Merary Guzmán.
Ramírez Rodríguez presented his resignation from the position Central Electoral Board (JCE) had assigned him to preside over Electoral College 1018 that operated on the campus of the Technological University of Santiago (Utesa), when there were just 5 days left before the presidential and congressional elections were held, alleging that he had been summoned to appear at a hearing, on May 19, due to a sanitation process in the province of El Seibo.
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The investigation led by the head of the prosecution body, Mr. Osvaldo Bonilla Hiraldo, and the prosecutor Aldo Peralta Lendof, on behalf of the Prosecutor’s Office, revealed that among the annexes deposited by the accused to support his untimely resignation from the electoral position, included a notice of request, an order to summon and set a hearing, issued by the Land Court of the Original Jurisdiction of El Seibo, corresponding to file number 0258-23-00586; with whose documents it was verified that the names of the judge and the secretary presented a different letter format than that used in the digital signature.
In addition to violating the Organic Law of the Electoral Regime No. 20-23, the man committed other crimes by using public documents and falsifying them for his benefit.
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Provisionally, the Santiago Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against Ramírez Rodríguez for violation of articles 147 and 148 of the Dominican Penal Code, which classify falsehood in public or authentic deeds, commercial or financial entity; also for violating article 18 of Law 53-07 on High-Tech Crimes and Offenses, which criminalizes the falsification of documents and signatures, as well as article 65, paragraph I, of the Organic Law of the Electoral Regime No. 20-23 , which prohibits resigning or not performing the designated functions once they have been voluntarily accepted, except in cases of force majeure or just cause, and by the same legislation, article 310, which contemplates criminal sanctions for electoral crimes, in this case committed to the detriment of the Dominican State and the Electoral Board of Santiago.
