Prosecutor seeks jail for judges in ´bribes for rulings´ scandal

Santo Domingo.- TheOffice of the Anticorruption Prosecutor (Pepca) on Tuesday requested pretrial detentionagainst fired judge Francisco Arias and suspended judge Awilda Reyes, bothcharged in the case of ´bribes for rulings´ scandal.

The request to be filedin a hearing set for the National District Criminal Court at 12 noon Wednesday,also cautions that the accused pose a flight risk..

Special instructionjudge Ramon Horacio will hear the request to apprehend and incarcerate Ariasand Reyes, to face charges that they form part of a network which sells rulings.

According to SupremeCourt chief justice Mariano Germán, Reyes had admitted to taking a bribe torelease Pedro Brand city councilman Erinson de los Santos, charged with severalmurders. Reyes is also accused and of also return a seized plane and US$30million in the Torre Atiemar in the case of Spanish drug trafficker Arturo delTiempo.

German also said eyes hadadmitted to acting on orders by Arias and superiors, which she didn’t name.

In a subsequentrevelation, Francisco Alvarez, of the civic group Citizen Participation, saidsuch "orders" were from former Justice minister Radhames Jiménez.