Santo Domingo.- Over a dozen lawyers on Thursday filed a complaint against Justice minister Francisco Dominguez and 32 Adjunct prosecutors for allegedly violating articles of the Constitution and of Justice Ministry bylaws, among others.
The attorneys grouped in the Jurists Commission to Rescue the Judiciary and headed by veteran lawyers Ramon Pina, Carlos Balcácer, Felix D. Olivares, Pedro Duarte Canaan and Marino Elsevyf say Dominguez broke the law by conducting a political campaign while in the post.
The lawyers filed the complaint accompanied by posters and other items used in political activities allegedly headed by Dominguez.
Pina said the lawsuit seeks to safeguard the Justice Ministry "of this cancer that is political influence," whereas Balcácer denied criticism has arisen during the course of an investigation targeting senator Felix Bautista.”We’re doing it because…this goes against the Constitution. "
The complaint names Justice Ministry officials as codefendants, who allegedly took part in ??political activities, including Carlos Castillo Diaz, John Henry Reynoso, Pelagio Alcantara and Jose del Carmen Sepulveda, among others.
Ruling party showdown
The complaint is the latest salvo in an escalating showdown within Dominican Republic’s ruling party (PLD), in which Dominguez seeks an indictment on Bautista’s alleged embezzlement during his tenure as head of the powerful State Works Supervisory Engineers Office (OISOE), during the terms of the lawmaker’s apparent mentor, former president Leonel Fernandez.