Spanish
Santo Domingo. – Alexis Medina Sánchez, the main defendant in the Antipulpo case, lashed out this Wednesday against the Dominican judicial system, claiming that he was a victim of mistreatment while serving preventive detention. During his final statements before the Second Collegiate Tribunal of the National District, Medina stated that in prison he was forced to perform cleaning tasks and that they even served him food in unsanitary conditions.
“They made me mop the floor and gave me soup with hair,” he declared, although he clarified that he didn't mind doing those tasks, since, according to him, he is a hardworking man. “Because they were elderly people, I mopped the floor for them,” he explained, referring to other inmates with whom he shared a cell.
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In his defense, he vehemently denied being the ringleader of an alleged corruption network that had embezzled the State of almost five billion pesos. He said that he only met several of the accused as a result of the judicial process. Medina also responded to those who have dismissed him for his past as a hairdresser. He admitted that, at 17, he cut his friends' hair without charging, but stressed that he has been an entrepreneur since he was young. "Since my youth what I have done is work. I was an exporter of tires and batteries as a businessman," he maintained. The accused, brother of former President Danilo Medina, faces charges along with other defendants for his alleged participation in a structure that would have used its closeness to power to obtain millionaire contracts irregularly during the past government.
