Deadline to charge in Dominican Republic ‘Octopus’ case nears

Santo Domingo.- The term that Judge José Alejandro Vargas granted to the Anticorruption Office (Pepca) to investigate and charge the brothers of former President Danilo Medina and eight other defendants in the ‘Octopus’ fraud case is about to expire.

Due to the fact that the case was declared complex, on August 8, according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, the eight months that the investigating body has to present conclusive acts against Juan Alexis and Carmen Magaly Medina Sánchez, as well as Francisco Pagán, are completed.

Also charged are Fernando Rosa, Aquiles Cristopher Sánchez, Freddy Hidalgo, Rafael Antonio Germosén, Julián Esteban Suriel Suazo, José Dolores Santana Carmona and Wacal Vernavel Méndez Pineda.

In December 2020, Vargas, who served as judge of the Permanent Attention Court of the National District, issued 18 months of pretrial, domiciliary detention and periodic presentation for the accused for allegedly integrating a network that defrauded the State with billions of pesos protected in the family link of two of the defendants with the then president Medina.