High court deals a ´hard blow´ to Dominican Republic´s fight on corruption

Santo Domingo.- TheSupreme Court again cleared senator Felix Bautista on charges he embezzled millionsof dollars when he headed the State Works Supervisory Engineers Office (OISOE).
Wednesday´s ruling drew an immediate response fromJustice minister Francisco Dominguez, who called it a blow in the fight oncorruption and that the high court “doesn’t deserve the slightestcredibility."
"With much painbut the Supreme Court doesn’t deserve the slightest credibility in this case. Idon’t believe in its impartiality, I don’t believe in its interest in findingthe truth and I think they’ve ´dealt a hard blow to democracy in the DominicanRepublic in this case and in others I´ve mentioned because it´s not just thisone," Dominguez said, but didn’t specify if he´d appeal.
In a subsequentstatement, the Justice Ministry said in the case against Bautista, José ElíasHernández, Bolívar Ventura, Carlos Manuel Ozoria, Grisel Araceli Soler, SoraidaAbreu Martínez and Bienvenido Bretón Medina, the Supreme Court doesn’t deserve anyconfidence.