Odebrecht US$92M bribe case defense wants a closed trial(Update)

Santo Domingo.- Court rules to bar livve coverage.

File.- Just now that the Brazilian witnesses are present at the trial of the Odebrecht US$92 million bribe case, which had been delayed since December 21 due to their failure to appear, the attorneys for the six defendants began Fri. with multiple motions.

Ángel Rondón’s defense asked the National District 1st panel court to cancel the live broadcasts of the testimony by the witnesses during the hearings. They allege that it is to prevent witnesses not present in court from taking notice of the statements and conditioning what they are going to say when it’s their turn.

Present in Friday’s hearing are former Odebrecht executives, Mauricio Dantas Bezerra, and Rodrigo Maluf Cardoso, against whom an arrest order had been issued in the last hearing held in December.  In addition, María Eugenia Batista and Marcelo Hofke, also key prosecution witnesses.

For its part, the defense of Víctor Díaz Rúa motioned to strike the testimony of Dantas Bezerra as it “constitutes an irrelevant testimony in the case.” They also alleged that Dantas’ deposition in the preparatory stage was not notified to them so that they could prepare their defense.