Announced pardons pave way for release of convicted bankers

Santo Domingo.- Justice minister Radhamés Jiménez yesterday said he’ll ask the commission to be created in the next few days to recommend the presidential pardons, to take into account ill inmates and women who’ve been used as “mules” by drug traffickers.

The announcement paves the way for the release of bankers convicted in major fraud cases, especially those in the collapse of the banks Baninter, Mercantil and Bancredito, whose failures caused Dominican Republic taxpayers more than US$3.5 billion.

He said the commission will tour the correctional centers, where it will precisely evaluate the cases which in fact deserve pardons.

He said it would recommend to president Leonel Fernandez only the pardons that the commission suggests, “not one more, not one less.”

The official, speaking with journalists in the Justice Ministry, justified the presidential pardons issued to two French women two years ago, because they weren’t drug traffickers, and instead were used as “mules,” adding that in a recent trip to Ecuador, he saw how the Government of that country pardoned more than 300 women used with that intention.