Santo Domingo.- The judge of the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services of the National District, Rigoberto Sena, recessed until 2:00 p.m. this Friday the hearing for the request of coercive measures against the 26 defendants in the SeNaSa 2.0 case, a process that enters the stage of rebuttals and counter-rebuttals after several days of defense presentations.
The hearing will continue with the presentation of arguments by the technical defense of Ysabel Heredia Vallejo, represented by lawyer Félix Portes, who is among the last defense attorneys pending to intervene before the court in the proceedings related to SeNaSa.
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Once Portes’ intervention concludes, it will be the Public Prosecutor’s Office’s turn to respond to the points raised by the defendants’ lawyers. Subsequently, the defense teams will have the opportunity to counter-argue the prosecution’s arguments.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office requested 18 months of pretrial detention for the 26 defendants and for the case to be declared complex litigation. The hearing has extended over several days due to the number of defendants and the amount of arguments and evidentiary elements incorporated into the SeNaSa 2.0 case file.
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During the hearing, it also emerged that 10 of the 26 defendants had allegedly admitted to the facts attributed to them by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The information was confirmed by court prosecutor Mirna Ortiz, who noted that those defendants had acknowledged the actions attributed to them by the prosecuting body.
Lawyers linked to the case had also reported admissions and expressions of regret from some of their clients. These statements are part of the proceedings and must be evaluated by the court along with the evidence and arguments presented by the prosecution and the defense.
Senasa: A file with 26 defendants
The process involves 26 people, including 22 doctors and four former employees of the National Health Insurance (SeNaSa), according to the information presented during the development of the investigation and the hearing.
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The Public Prosecutor’s Office maintains that it is investigating an alleged scheme through which authorizations and claims for medical services were reportedly generated that, according to the accusation, were not performed.
According to the file, 4,363 authorizations related to consultations and procedures are recorded for an approximate amount of RD$41.1 million.
The prosecuting body claims that real member data was allegedly used to manage authorizations, bill for procedures, and subsequently claim payments from SeNaSa.
The case corresponds to a second line of investigation into alleged irregularities committed against the National Health Insurance. The Public Prosecutor’s Office maintains that the file contains hundreds of pieces of evidence and has requested that the process be declared complex due to the number of facts investigated, people involved, and evidence related to SeNaSa.
The defense teams, for their part, have questioned the charges and have insisted that responsibilities must be determined on an individual basis for each defendant.
During the hearing sessions, there have also been protests from family members and associates of the defendants, who have requested their release.
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The procedural status of the 26 defendants has not yet been defined. The request for pretrial detention corresponds to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and it will be Judge Rigoberto Sena who determines the appropriate coercive measures in each case, after hearing the rebuttals and counter-rebuttals of the parties in the SeNaSa 2.0 process.
The court must individually assess the situation of each of the defendants, taking into account the arguments presented by their lawyers and the evidence submitted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The decision must also establish whether there are conditions to impose preventive detention or other precautionary measures.
This Friday’s session will be closely followed by family members, lawyers, and associates of the defendants, as the parties prepare for the rebuttal and surrebuttal phase before Judge Rigoberto Sena determines the corresponding measures within the process.
