During a visit by the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo De Sousa, to the National Congress, a delegation of deputies from the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) held a meeting with him. The PLD congressmen handed over a communication to the President denouncing the “use of justice as a political tool” against their organization. The communication was supported by the parliamentary block of the country’s main opposition party and delivered by the spokesman for the PLD block of deputies, Juan Julio Campos Ventura.
The letter stated that the Public Ministry had been engaging in practices that aimed at the judicialization of politics in different cases involving political leaders of the PLD. The letter expressed concerns about the threats to the system of political parties and democracy in the country. The PLD recognized the role of the Public Ministry in the investigation and implementation of criminal cases but stated that due process and the universal principle of presumption of innocence had been violated in various criminal cases involving leaders of their party in the last two years.
The PLD legislators highlighted the most recent cases, in which several members of the party’s top leadership, including the presidential candidate in the 2020 elections, had been arrested on allegations of receiving illicit funds for the electoral campaign. The PLD legislators also criticized the frequency of judicial cases characterized by leaked documents, media spectacles, and value judgments by the Public Ministry against the accused, which they believed demonstrated purposes far removed from the pursuit of justice.
The PLD delegation requested the attention of the dignitaries of the Ibero-American Community who were in the country for the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit to the risk situation that Dominican democracy was going through. They also requested that President Marcelo Rebelo De Sousa ensure that the Portuguese State could follow up on the events that derived from the official harassment against the political opposition represented by the Dominican Liberation Party.