Supreme Court of Justice acquits Díaz Rúa and Ángel Rondón in the Odebrecht case and with this decision, the Odebrecht case remains without any convictions in the Dominican Republic. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Dominican Republic on Friday (August 16th) accepted an appeal in favour of former Minister of Public Works Víctor Díaz Rúa and businessman Ángel Rondón, absolving them of the accusations against them in the Odebrecht case. On October 14, 2021, they were sentenced to five and eight years in prison, respectively.
Díaz Rúa and Rondón were the only individuals convicted in the Dominican Republic for the largest case of administrative corruption in Latin America, involving a Brazilian construction company paying Dominican officials over 92 million dollars for the benefit of State projects.
There have been major corruption scandals and trials involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in more than half a dozen countries in Latin America. In Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil, at least one president, several ministers, and other high-ranking officials were convicted of bribery and corruption.
The high court determined that the Public Ministry did not provide sufficient evidence to prove its accusation against the only convicts. The court made up of judges Francisco Antonio Jerez Mena, Nancy Salcedo Fernández, Fran Euclides Soto Sánchez and María Garabito Ramírez, indicated that the Public Ministry did not prove the destination of the funds paid for the alleged bribe, evaluating Rondón’s thesis, which He had been sentenced to eight years in prison and that “in order for there to be bribes, there must be those who have been bribed.”
“The destination of the funds is unknown and uncertain since it could not be established which officials allegedly received the offer or obtained the values that, according to the premises proven in the trial, were received by the accused Ángel Rondón Rijo,” says the acquittal ruling.
The judges indicated that the accusation of illicit enrichment and money laundering was not proven, charges for which the former Minister of Public Works (Victor Diaz Rua) was sentenced to five years in prison.
Cessation of coercive measures
In this sense, the Supreme Court ordered the cessation of all coercive measures imposed against Rondón and Díaz Rúa, as well as the return of the confiscated assets that appear in the thirteenth ordinal of the first degree sentence.
The Supreme Court of Justice accepted their appeals and reversed the lower court’s verdicts in the case. With this decision, this judicial process remains irrevocable and the Odebrecht corruption case remains without conviction in the Dominican Republic.
Source: Diario Libre