Prosecutor slams bonds in drug-related cases as 1,593 skip bail

Santo Domingo.- National District prosecutor Yenny Berenice Reynoso said Sunday that it its Investigation Department’s database there are 1,593 people who skipped bail in drugs related cases.

She said the figure is cause for concern, noting that among others, most of those people managed to get bond alleging by telling the judges that they have roots in their communities, and even get affidavits issued from neighborhood boards, clubs, churches and corporate organizations.

The official said that some of the 1,593 people in contempt of court in drug-related cases have managed to get released after being arraigned and incarcerated, by getting a subsequent bond.

Civil society complicity

“It’s cause for concern that civil society institutions grant affidavits to people implicated in crimes, without properly observing their origin and root, for that reason I believe they should be more careful,” Reynoso said, adding that a large part of those people get released on bond and make a mockery of Dominican Republic’s Judiciary process, by becoming fugitives afterwards.