Ex-Public Works chief embezzlement case to court Friday

Santo Domingo.- A National District interim judge will hold the first pre-trial hearing 9am Friday in the money laundering and embezzlement case against former Public Works minister Víctor Díaz Rúa.

Instruction Court judge Leomar Cruz will preside over the hearing, after instruction Court Coordinator judge Roman Hiciano Berroa assigned him to the case.

The attorneys for Diaz Rua -a close collaborator of former president Leonel Fernandez- had motioned for acquittal and a halt to the investigation by National prosecutor Yeni Berenice Reynoso, claiming violation of due process.

Cruz’s designation came in the heels of the scandal unleashed by Reynoso, who accused judge Margarita Christ of receiving US$2.0 million from a convicted drug trafficker.