Coercive measure against Coral and Coral 5G suspects upheld

Santo Domingo, DR.
The judge of the Sixth Court of Instruction of the National District Yanibet Rivas, confirmed the coercive measure against seven of those implicated in the Coral and Coral 5G cases.

After more than three hours of pondering, the magistrate decided to keep General Boanerges Reyes Batista; Captain Franklin Mata Flore; police colonel Rafael Núñez de Aza; Rossy Guzmán Sánchez (La Pastora); police corporal Tanner Antonio Flete Guzmán (son of the nun) and General Julio Camilo de los Santos Viola in preventive detention, due to the fact that the budgets have not changed.

In the case of the former security chief of former President Danilo Medina, Major General Adán Cáceres Silvestre, the mandatory review of the measure was postponed for 26 September due to the fact that he had requested it individually from the group.

The defense of Boanerges Reyes and de los Santos Viola informed that they would appeal the decision taken because “the rights of the presumption of innocence are being violated,” according to lawyer Waldo Abreu.

While the lawyer Héctor García López, who represents Pastor Rossy Guzmán and her son, said that they would sit down to analyze the complete decision of the judges to decide the next steps to be taken.

At the end of the hearing, the head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), Wilson Camacho, indicated that he applauded the judge’s decision.

“We build the cases with enough strength so that they can resist any attack. What do we expect as a consequence, that the Judicial Power places itself at the height of the circumstances, notwithstanding that, this is a process in which history will evaluate us at the end of the hearing,” he said at the end of the hearing.

He also said that the judge’s decision was made just weeks after the Seventh Court of the National District decided to send to house arrest four of those implicated in the Antipulpo case, where the main implicated is the brother of Danilo Medina, Alexis Medina.

With the Coral and Coral 5G operations, the Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges for administrative corruption against 48 people, 30 individuals, and 18 legal entities accused of defrauding the Dominican State of more than 4 billion pesos.

The corruption scheme, according to the authorities, operated in the Presidential Security Corps (Cusep), the Specialized Tourism Security Corps (Cestur), and the National Council for Children and Adolescents (Conani).

Among those charged in Operation Coral are Major General Adán Cáceres Silvestre, Rossy Guzmán Sánchez (La Pastora), police corporal Tanner Antonio Flete Guzmán (son of the nun), police colonel Rafael Núñez de Aza and Navy sergeant Alejandro José Montero Cruz, as well as Army Major Raúl Alejandro Girón Jiménez.

In Operation Coral 5G, derived from Coral, arrested generals Juan Carlos Torres Robiou (FARD), Boanerges Reyes Batista (ARD), and Julio Camilo de los Santos Viola (FARD), as well as ARD navy captain Franklin Mata Flores and José Manuel Rosario Pirón.

Also implicated in the case are Carlos Lantigua, Alfredo Pichardo, Erasmo Roger Pérez, Jehohanan Lucía Rodríguez, Yehudy Blandesmil Guzmán, and Esmeralda Ortega Polanco.