Chief Justice unaware the U.S. yanked judges’ visas

Santo Domingo.- Supreme Court Chief justice Mariano German on Monday said he’s unaware that the United States canceled the visa of several judges for handing down “benign” rulings on narcotics cases.

He said as president of the Supreme Court and of the Judicial Council, the U.S. embassy hasn’t notified him of the situation and therefore couldn’t comment.

German spoke after attending workshop "Harmonization of criminal law in the fight against organized crime" for Central American and Dominican parliamentarians, with lawmakers and justice ministers from Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

The media asked the Chief Justice about the judges allegedly canceled visas, just one day after local media broke the story about lawmakers, politicians and business leaders stripped of the document to travel to U.S. territories, mostly in connection with drug trafficking.