Former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodríguez responds to US entry ban

Santo Domingo.- Jean Alain Rodríguez, the former Attorney General of the Dominican Republic, reacted to the cancellation of his and his family’s entry permits to the United States, following public accusations of corruption. Rodríguez asserted that the US State Department based its decision on information provided by the Dominican Attorney General’s Office and expressed confidence that the US would change its stance upon receiving “the other side of the coin.”

Rodríguez, along with his wife María Isabel Pérez Sallent and their two minor children, faces this sanction due to allegations of significant corruption during his tenure as Attorney General from 2016-2020. He criticized the action against his family, stating he is accustomed to personal persecution but not against his family members.

The Public Ministry (MP) of the Dominican Republic regards the US sanction as a recognition of the strength and evidence supporting the accusation against Rodríguez. Mirna Ortiz, the Litigation Coordinator of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Prosecution of Administrative Corruption (Pepca), clarified that the MP has no influence over decisions of another state like the US. She emphasized that the evidence led to the US’s decision, indicating the robustness of the charges in the Medusa case.

Among the allegations against Rodríguez is his involvement in the irregular process for constructing the La Nueva Victoria prison, which remains non-operational despite being inaugurated over three years ago.

Meanwhile, the preliminary trial in Operation Medusa, in which Rodríguez and others are accused, faces further delays. Judge Amauri Martínez of the Third Investigative Court has postponed the trial until the following Friday, marking the third consecutive postponement due to legal challenges in the defense of one of the accused.

Additionally, Judge Martínez is set to review Rodríguez’s house arrest terms, as Rodríguez seeks conditional freedom without an electronic shackle, which he has been wearing since January. The former Attorney General initially served an 18-month prison sentence at the Najayo-Hombres Correction and Rehabilitation Center. The case against him, currently in the preliminary trial stage, involves a file exceeding 12,000 pages, highlighting the complexity and scale of the allegations.