Spanish
Santo Domingo. – Three of the ten defendants for their alleged participation in the network that, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, diverted funds from the National Health Insurance (Senasa) for four years, admitted this Thursday the facts attributed to them and pointed to Santiago Hazim as the alleged ringleader of the scheme.
The defendants Cinty Acosta, Eduardo Read, and Heidy Mariela Pineda acknowledged their participation in the Cobra case and, according to lawyers, had declared having delivered millions of dollars to Hazim as part of the illicit operations.
In that sense, lawyer Martín Rubiera, representative of one of the plaintiffs, stated that the confessions mark a critical point within the process.
"The process has started in a culminating way for Santiago Hazim, because the three defendants who have started have attributed immense guilt against him. The three have stated the same thing: that they delivered values and money in his favor within the framework. It's not something simple; three out of three point to him so far," he specified.
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Rubiera added that, according to the statements, there was even a "ghost" person in charge of procuring the money within the illicit scheme.
From his side, lawyer Miguel Surun maintained that all the defendants who have testified so far have admitted the facts presented by the Public Ministry.
"The defendants who are testifying have admitted the facts presented. The businessman Eduardo Ríos Trella stated that he had delivered one billion pesos in cash to Mr. Santiago Hazim as a bribe," he expressed.
Surun assured that the evidentiary elements of the case are abundant and that the money laundering operations are "duly proven" according to the prosecution. Likewise, he asked that there be no political interference in judicial decisions.
"We hope that the political influence of people with high economic power will not prevail to divert the request for pre-trial detention. It would be a colossal injustice to send to their homes defendants who, according to the record, received billions through companies with minimum capital and who today confirm the operations," he said.
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The jurist also recalled that, even if the accused admit the facts, the process is in the coercion measure phase and the judge can decide on measures other than the preventive prison requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office.
