Spanish
Santo Domingo.- Before issuing a sentence that condemned Alexis Medina, brother of former president Danilo Medina, the judges of the Second Collegiate Tribunal of the National District, Claribel Nivar (president of the tribunal), Yissell Soto Peña and Clara Sobeyda Castillo, stated that "society definitely has to stand up to all this scourge, because corruption, without a doubt, has been evidenced in this case: it has been full, absolute and profound."
In the words of Judge Soto Peña, the court took a moment to reflect on the deep institutional deterioration of society that it was able to witness with the corruption cases presented by the Public Ministry.
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"Every time she knows a case (the court), it's as if she feels she's in a process of involution, things are more serious. And I think, we believe, that we have to reflect ourselves," she said. "It's not that we have all the prosecutors working to put in jail whoever does the wrong thing, no; what we aspire to is that they don't have so much work so that the system is a little more relaxed," he added in a reflection in which he insisted that lower-ranking public employees should not be blinded by corruption. "We cannot have a careless blindness because if we do, we are going to get involved in bad things," he indicated before alleging that technically, and according to his criteria, the court could not "subsume" some punishable behaviors of the defendants, which did not mean, he said, that the judges did not appreciate how bad the things judged were. "Hopefully we start to change, because if we don't learn to change, we will always have these processes and they will always be bad: we talk about that boy in the neighborhood who kills someone to steal a cell phone, if we equate things, we honestly don't know which is worse," indicated Judge Soto Peña. The brother of former President Danilo Medina, Alexis Medina Sánchez, who led the corruption scheme, was found guilty of bribery in commerce and investment, money laundering, use of false documents, and criminal association. Medina Sánchez will also have to pay a fine of 150 minimum wages. The court also sentenced José Dolores Santana Carmona to 6 years in prison and 5 years to Wacal Vernabel Méndez Pineda, Francisco Ramón Brea Morel, Carlos Martín Montes de Oca, Rigoberto Alcántara Batista and Paola Mercedes and Víctor Matías Encarnación. The processed Medina Sánchez, José Dolores Santana Carmona, Wacal Vernabel Méndez Pineda, Paola Mercedes and Rigoberto Alcántara Batista and several companies must pay 500 million to the Dominican State. Also, the companies Domedical Supply SRL; Fuel American Inc.; General Supply Corporations SRL; General Medical Solution AM SRL; Kyanred Supply SRL; Suim Suplidores Institucionales Méndez SRL; United Suppliers Corporations SRL; WattmaxDominicana SRL; WMI International SRL; Wonder Island Park SRL; Acorpor SRL; Ichor Oil SRL; Globus Electrical SRL; Contratas SolutionServices CSS SRL; Constructora Alcántara Bobea (CONALBO) SRL; Proyectos Engineering & Construction PIC SRL; Reivasapt Investment SRL; Suhold Transporte y Logística SRL. Juan Alexis Medina Sánchez and the other convicts must serve their prison sentences in the Najayo Men's and Najayo Women's correction and rehabilitation centers, in the province of San Cristóbal, in addition to paying the criminal costs of the process. Under the agreement reached with the Public Ministry, the defendant Víctor Matías Encarnación Montero was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years in prison, with the court ordering the suspension of the sentence, subject to rules, including residing at the address that was notified to the court. He was also sentenced to pay the criminal costs and a fine of 500 thousand pesos. The following were acquitted: Fernando Rosa, Carmen Magalys, Freddy Hidalgo, Rafael Antonio Germosén Andújar, Lina Ercilia de la Cruz Vargas, Pachristy Emmanuel Ramírez, Carlos José Alarcón, Libni Arodi Valenzuela Matos, José Miguel Genao Torres, Antonio Florentino Méndez, José Idelfonso Correa Martínez, Aquiles Alejandro Christopher Sánchez and Fulvio Antonio Cabreja Gómez Also, the companies Cemeraf and Editorama were acquitted of money laundering and released from paying the legal costs of the process.
