NewsWhore
01-22-2009, 06:00 PM
The United States federal authorities in charge of the case against former Army captain Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo are said to have informed the National District Prosecutor that part of the plea deal they struck with the accused drug trafficker involves the transfer of around 30 of his friends and relations.
The objective, according to Diario Libre, is to offer them effective protection against future retaliation from the criminal groups whose Mafia-like structure allows them to operate in the DR with relative immunity to intimidate and kill.
The position was voiced by lawyers Felix Damian Olivares and Freddy Castillo, who are representing Quirino's wife, Belkis Elizabeth Ubri Medrano, in an opposition appeal, outside of chamber, against a decision by the Second Chamber of the Penal Section of the Appeals Court of the National District, that ordered the notification, translated into Spanish, of the documents that contain the agreement between prosecutors in New York and those of the National District to retired Colonel Pedro Julio "Pepe" Goico Guerrero and Bienvenido Guevara Diaz (Maconi).
Both men were found not guilty of money laundering, but Ubri Medrano was sentenced to five years in jail and is trying to obtain an annulment of the sentence and the definitive withdrawal of the charges, as they relate to her, in order to facilitate compliance with the international judicial cooperation. In one appeal, her lawyers ask the court to shorten the timeframe for deciding such a case.
They say that it is well known that in the Dominican Republic the international drug trafficking organizations operate with a large capacity for violence, "to the extent that high-ranking officials in our Armed Forces have been found to be involved in executions ordered by these organizations, and therefore it is reasonable to think that all of the persons tied either by friendship or family to Mr. Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo would be running great risks as long as they remain in the country."
The lawyers say that any further action, such as arrest warrants, capture and passive extradition of other people could not take place while Quirino's relatives and friends are still in the country. "Then, there is the double risk of delay, which is to say: the possibility of attempts against these people's lives and the escape of those who would have been requested for extradition."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)
The objective, according to Diario Libre, is to offer them effective protection against future retaliation from the criminal groups whose Mafia-like structure allows them to operate in the DR with relative immunity to intimidate and kill.
The position was voiced by lawyers Felix Damian Olivares and Freddy Castillo, who are representing Quirino's wife, Belkis Elizabeth Ubri Medrano, in an opposition appeal, outside of chamber, against a decision by the Second Chamber of the Penal Section of the Appeals Court of the National District, that ordered the notification, translated into Spanish, of the documents that contain the agreement between prosecutors in New York and those of the National District to retired Colonel Pedro Julio "Pepe" Goico Guerrero and Bienvenido Guevara Diaz (Maconi).
Both men were found not guilty of money laundering, but Ubri Medrano was sentenced to five years in jail and is trying to obtain an annulment of the sentence and the definitive withdrawal of the charges, as they relate to her, in order to facilitate compliance with the international judicial cooperation. In one appeal, her lawyers ask the court to shorten the timeframe for deciding such a case.
They say that it is well known that in the Dominican Republic the international drug trafficking organizations operate with a large capacity for violence, "to the extent that high-ranking officials in our Armed Forces have been found to be involved in executions ordered by these organizations, and therefore it is reasonable to think that all of the persons tied either by friendship or family to Mr. Quirino Ernesto Paulino Castillo would be running great risks as long as they remain in the country."
The lawyers say that any further action, such as arrest warrants, capture and passive extradition of other people could not take place while Quirino's relatives and friends are still in the country. "Then, there is the double risk of delay, which is to say: the possibility of attempts against these people's lives and the escape of those who would have been requested for extradition."
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)