Judge refuses to step aside in embattled senator’s case(Update2)

Santo Domingo.- The prosecution on Tuesday asked Special Instruction judge Frank Soto to reject the request to lift the liens on properties allegedly owned by embattled senator Felix Bautista, one of former president Leonel Fernandez’s closest collaborators.

Anti-corruption Unit prosecutor Pelagio Alcántaralso asked Soto to refrain from deciding who’s eligible to participate in the proceedings, in reference to third party stakeholders in the properties, since the lawmaker filed his request in the investigative phase of the process, and which in their view, that phase already expired.

The prosecution also submitted the order which designates Alejandro Moscoso as Special Instruction Judge, to hear the request for pretrial conditions in the case in which searches have been conducted in properties of the realtor inmobiliaria Rofi, allegedly owned by Bautista.

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