Coercion measure advances against defendants in Operation Cobra

Santo Domingo.– The knowledge of the coercive measure against those involved in the alleged criminal network that for four years would have diverted public funds from the National Health Insurance (Senasa) advances this Thursday, in a hearing that began after 2:00 in the afternoon. During the session, the Public Ministry proceeded to read the instance that supports the request for coercive measures, individualizing each of the accused. Subsequently, the State's lawyers began to present their motions for adherence, while the court organizes the order of the parties' presentations.

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In that sense, lawyer Carlos Balcácer, representative of the defendant Rafael Martínez Hazim, explained that the defenses are preparing for extensive presentations due to the variety of charges attributed to the accused.

"The Public Ministry read the instance that justifies the imposition of the measure of subjection and individualized the accused. The State's lawyers are already presenting their promotions of adhesion and the order of exposition is going to be organized," he indicated.

Balcácer highlighted that not all defendants face the same legal qualification, which will make the defense of each one have a particular focus.

“In principle, not all defendants have the same legal qualification. There are people accused of collusion of officials, bribery, and corruption, among others. In the case of Rafael Martínez, for example, the imputation includes fraud against the State and association of wrongdoers, as is the case with the majority. There is a diversity of charges: some have money laundering and others do not,” he highlighted.

The lawyer estimated that the hearing could last several hours due to the number of defendants and the complexity of the case. “Based on experience with the magistrate, if we project half an hour of intervention per defendant, and there are 11, we are talking about five hours. If we start at 6 in the evening and then come the replies and deliberation, it is likely that the magistrate will decide to postpone it to around 10 at night to continue tomorrow, in order not to prolong the hearing until the early hours of the morning”, he added.