Judge who granted work permit to former ambassador also convicted had also released “Chuky”, implicated in attack against David Ortiz

SANTO DOMINGO. – Judge José Manuel Arias, from the Execution of Sentence of the Judicial Department of San Cristóbal, is once again at the center of the controversy after authorizing a work permit to the former ambassador of the National Border Council, Donni Mayobanex Santana Cuevas, sentenced to 20 years in prison for incest against his underage stepdaughter.

Arias is the same magistrate who at the time favored José Eduardo Ciprián Lebrón, alias Chuki, with early release, sentenced to 10 years for his involvement in the attack against former baseball player David Ortiz. Ciprián Lebrón was released halfway through his sentence and just two weeks ago was killed in a shooting in Herrera, Santo Domingo Oeste municipality, where two other men also died and one was injured.

In the case of Santana Cuevas, Judge Arias granted him permission to work as a professor at the National School of the Bar Association (CARD), with the modality of house arrest on weekends and holidays. The request was endorsed by the vice president of CARD, Juan Pérez Roa, who served as the employment guarantor of the convicted.

The defense attorneys for Santana Cuevas in this request were José Fernando Pérez Vólquez, Manuela Ramírez Orozco and Valentín Medrano Peña, who managed to convince the court that the former official could work in teaching positions.

The former ambassador was sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison for violating his stepdaughter from the ages of 11 to 14, a sentence that was later upheld by the Supreme Court of Justice.

The matching of judicial decisions by Judge Arias has generated questions in sectors of public opinion, who consider that these rulings send contradictory signals in the fight against impunity and the protection of victims.