SANTO DOMINGO.–Lawyer Manuel Sierra Pérez held the Public Prosecutor’s Office responsible for the fact that the judicial process against former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez, which began in 2020, has exceeded the four-year legal deadline established by the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Constitutional Court, for which he asserted that “that process is extinct.”
When approached by the press upon leaving a court, Sierra Pérez explained that the reasonable timeframe to hear a criminal case is four years, a period during which, as he stated, “it is presumed that one can file recusals, seek evidence, and do everything.”
“The thing is that the Public Prosecutor’s Office, even though it told the country, at the beginning of that process, that it had it shielded, let almost six years go by and has not been able to present the indictment,” the jurist maintained.
For Sierra Pérez, the responsibility for the delay lies exclusively with the prosecuting body.
“Whoever has hindered the process by crossing the four-year legal threshold stated by the legislator is the Public Prosecutor’s Office… Today, what has happened is the fault of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and nothing more, and therefore, it must suffer the consequences,” he stated.
The lawyer warned that, if not resolved in the current instance, the case “dies here, dies in court and, if not, it will be consumed by the Constitutional Court,” which, as he indicated, has issued more than 25 rulings to that effect.
“This is not a matter of taste. Judges are subject to the principle of legality. What does the principle of legality say? That judges must submit to what the legislator says: four years and nothing more,” he emphasized.
Sierra Pérez concluded by pointing out that the Public Prosecutor’s Office owes an explanation to society, to which it promised an “armored process” and which, to date, has not presented a formal accusation.
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“Because of their negligence, because of their apathy, and because they wanted to do something that was impossible to do, they are now reaping the consequences,” he concluded.
