Politicians and religious figures claim absolution of Díaz Rúa and Rondón sends a message to the MP about lack of solidity in files

Santo Domingo. – Political and religious leaders agreed this Friday that the ruling of the Constitutional Court, which ratifies the acquittal of Víctor Díaz Rúa and Ángel Rondón in the Odebrecht bribery case, sends a clear message to the Public Prosecutor’s Office about the need to present properly substantiated indictment files with sufficient evidence to stand in court. Deputies of the National Congress indicated that the ratification of the SCJ-SS-24-0969 ruling by the Constitutional Court, which confirmed the ruling issued in July 2024 by the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice, should not go unnoticed.

You may be interested in: Díaz Rúa explodes against Deligne Asención for comparing works of PLD and PRM governments

Congressman Ramón Raposo stated that this ruling reflects that far from politicizing corruption cases, the correct thing to do is to present properly substantiated files and cited as an example that the Odebrecht case, in most Latin American countries, led to convictions and the return of large sums of money. “In the end, the ones who lose are the justice system and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, because people stop believing in the institutions,” the legislator stated. The political leader Elías Wessin Chávez criticized that on many occasions the Public Ministry limits itself to presenting an excessive volume of documents with the intention of impressing, without these having true probative substance. “Many times the Public Ministry does is look for many papers and carries a lot of papers in a wheelbarrow to impress and that. But unfortunately the cases we have seen do not have approving substance,” he pointed out. Luis Henríquez, a member of the Central Committee of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), pointed out that it is necessary to build a society that does not punish or issue a priori value judgments, and highlighted that, from this sentence, important questions are raised for Dominican society. “We do not have to question the ruling of the corresponding courts because that is the legal order we have and that is due process. I think that sentence leaves questions. We want to have a Dominican Republic where dignity is respected, where due process is respected and where a culture of honesty and transparency among officials is promoted here,” the politician pointed out. For his part, the president of the Dominican Council of Evangelical Unity (CODUE), Feliciano Lacen Custodio, considered that many find it difficult to understand that, after such a long, investigated, and media-covered process, the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of the accused. Lacen warned that prolonged processes of this nature can leave people with their public image tarnished and their reputation questioned, in addition to the economic and legal costs involved, which could even lead to eventual lawsuits against the Dominican State. “Those people could sue the Dominican State for having been prosecuted and for lasting so many years in the courts, which costs public image and legal investment,” said Lacen Custodio. The Constitutional Court upheld the ruling that declared former Minister of Public Works Víctor Díaz Rúa and businessman Ángel Rondón not guilty of having received bribes from the Brazilian company Odebrecht. Both were among the 14 investigated in the case of the more than 92 million dollars in bribes that the company admitted to having paid in the Dominican Republic to United States authorities.