Dominican judges have formed a ´cartel´

Santo Domingo.- NationalDistrict prosecutor Yeni Berenice Reynoso on Tuesday said the alleged networkof judges who hand down rulings for pay a “cartel,” which also operates in theAdministrative & Real Estate jurisdictions and not just in the criminalcourts.

"This is not amatter of Awilda, it´s a cartel that involves many issues and far beyond thecriminal jurisdiction. Beyond that there are other jurisdictions that arevirtually unchanged or much worse than what is occurring in criminaljurisdiction," the prosecutor said in reference to suspended judge AwildaReyes, who´s at the center of the scandal.

He said theAdministrative and Real Estate jurisdictions have many problems oftransparency.

Reynoso rebuffednotions that Dominican Republic´s judiciary is currently at its best as somesectors and judges affirm, noting that when the rulings by some judges areanalyzed, "we see no correlation between corruption or major cases of organizedcrime and punishment. I do not think justice is at its best, neither in theadministrative nor in the judicial order, justice is far from being at itsbest."

The official said stricteradministrative controls are needed for a greater performance among all theactors in the system which in her view, lacks transparency. "

“What´s needed is notonly judges and prosecutors, and that justice should be justice of fairness andnot just for the poor, for organized crime, it should be justice for all, for therich, politician and for a complex case; the jails shouldn’t be full not only withpoor people or people who commit ordinary cases," she said.

Judge denies crisis

Supreme Court justice FrankSoto affirmed Tuesday that the Awilda Reyes scandal has helped form a strongerjudicial system. “There is no crisis.”