Pretrial detention for two men accused of murdering a woman in a cell phone store in San Cristóbal

SANTO DOMINGO. – A court in San Cristóbal ordered three months of pre-trial detention against two men accused of beating a woman to death last July in a cell phone store owned by one of the accused. The coercive measure was imposed on Pakistani Yasir Riaz, 31, and Afghan Hikmatullah Atta Mohammad, 29, who are identified as responsible for the death of Dominican Bebele Estefanía Fernández Casado, 32, due to severe blunt force trauma.

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The Public Ministry reported that the crime occurred on July 29, 2025 inside the cell phone store Al-Amin, located in the Villa Valdez sector, owned by Riaz. Subsequently, the body of Fernández Casado was thrown into the Haina River, in the community of Quita Sueño, where it was found the next day gagged, bloodied, and with severe head trauma, according to the death certificate. The accused were arrested by court order in Sabana Cruz de Bánica, Elías Piña, while attempting to flee on a motorcycle towards the border. The investigation is being carried out by prosecutors Laura Segura and Patricia Durán, while in the hearing the Public Ministry was represented by prosecutors Belkis Tejeda and Daryl Montes de Oca, who presented the evidence linking the accused to the crime, provisionally classified as a violation of articles 265, 266, 295, 296, 297, 298 and 302 of the Dominican Penal Code. Judge José Carlos Arias Nina, from the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of San Cristóbal, accepted the evidence presented by the Prosecution and ordered preventive detention for both. Yasir Riaz will have to serve the measure in the Baní public prison, in the province of Peravia, while Hikmatullah Atta Mohammad was sent to the Najayo Hombres Correction and Rehabilitation Center, in San Cristóbal.