Court rejects termination of proceedings against defendants in Coral and Coral 5G operations

Santo Domingo.- The First Collegiate Tribunal of the National District rejected the request for the extinction of the criminal action due to the expiration of the term in the process followed for administrative corruption against Major General Adán Cáceres Silvestre, former head of the Presidential Security Corps (Cusep), and other defendants in the framework dismantled through Operation Coral and Coral 5G. Judges Esmirna Giselle Méndez, Tania Yunes, and Jissel Naranjo based their decision on precedents from the Constitutional Court, which have established that to declare the extinction of criminal action, reasonable parameters that justify the delay of a process must be assessed, taking into account the context of Dominican justice, characterized by institutional limitations and multiple procedural resources that can delay the conclusion of cases.

You may be interested in: Trial on the merits against those accused in Operation Coral and Coral 5G postponed

In paragraph 20 of the decision, the court pointed out that in the preliminary phase there was an extension of the investigation, in which the term of article 299 of the Criminal Procedure Code was extended from five to ninety-five business days, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a note. This measure, the judges explained, was adopted to protect the right to defense in a large-scale process, which justified the extension of the deadlines. Similarly, in paragraph 21, the judges detailed that during the trial stage, multiple postponements occurred between October 26, 2023, and June 27, 2024, the date on which the oral presentation of the prosecution by the Public Ministry began.