Santo Domingo.- A National District court on Mon. rejected a motion by the defendant Conrado Pittaluga in the trial followed by those accused of the US$94.0 million bribes by Odebrecht.
The ruling barred him from addressing the panel court in the phase of reading the indictment against Pittaluga and five codefendants.
The prosecution also objected the accused’s request to testify at that time.
Presiding judge Giselle Méndez, argued that although the Criminal Procedure Code provides in article 303 the right of the accused to testify during the trial, “articles 319 and 320 regulate how the exercise of that prerogative is materialized.”
“Observing the established procedural order in no way could constitute a limitation to the rights of any of the persons, much less of the accused to testify in his defense, because that right will be preserved and reserved for the ideal procedural moment.”