Case against Jean Alain Rodríguez was postponed for the sixth time; hearing set for February 11

Santo Domingo.- The judicial process against former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez, accused of alleged fraud against the State for more than 6,000 million pesos, was postponed again to February 11, at 9:00 in the morning, remaining stalled in the merits phase almost five years after being submitted. The hearing, which aimed to begin the formal reading of the Public Prosecutor's indictment, was suspended following a request filed by the defense of Altagracia Guillén Calzado, one of the defendants in the case. With this decision, the case accumulates six postponements since it was originally set for May 1, 2025. The lawyer Carlos Moreno, legal representative of Guillén Calzado, former coordinator of the Administrative and Financial Directorate of the Attorney General's Office during Rodríguez's administration, requested more time to review documents and records of the process, alleging the need to adequately prepare to exercise the defense of his client. The request came after the Second Collegiate Tribunal of the National District, composed of magistrates Claribel Nivar, Clara Castillo and Yissell Soto, ordered the merger of the file of Guillén Calzado with that of the former prosecutor. The accused had previously been separated from the process by the investigating judge Amauri Martínez, due to health allegations, with the aim of avoiding delays in the main trial.

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During the session, the inclusion of the company Fire Control Systems within the main file was also discussed, a point that remains unresolved and has contributed to the prolongation of the process. Lawyer Ingrid Hidalgo warned that, if the delays continue, she would request the separation of the case file of her client, Jonnathan Joel Rodríguez Imbert, former administrative director of the Attorney General's Office, considering that the late integration of defenses only deepens the judicial delay. The president of the court, Claribel Nivar, called on the parties to assume procedural responsibility and warned that the judicial body will not allow maneuvers that hinder the progress of the case. "Here we cannot go with 'today I merge and tomorrow I split'", she stated, pointing out that the court is empowered to order separations if necessary. For her part, Judge Yissell Soto urged the lawyers to avoid unnecessary incidents that keep a case file, which has already been stalled for over two years without substantial progress since the closing of the instruction phase, paralyzed. The head of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), Mirna Ortiz, expressed institutional weariness in the face of the reiteration of procedural incidents, pointing out that it is the same file, with the same evidence and the same accusation, which continues to be unknown in substance.