Supreme Court on Plan Renove

[NewsWhore]

The Supreme Court has ordered a retrial of the case involving transport unions, former government officials and fraud against the state. Known as the Plan Renove trial, the court ordered that the National District Court of Appeals First Chamber retry the RD$1 billion fraud case from scratch. The decision was taken on appeal after the Santo Domingo Province Court of Appeals Penal Chamber ratified a sentence of 4 to 10 years in prison for several of the accused in the case issued by Judge Esther Agelan Casasnovas on 17 October 2005, which was revoked by the Appeals Court on 6 May 2006. Judges Hugo Alvarez Valencia, Dulce Maria Rodriguez de Goris, Edgar Hernandez Mena and Victor Jose Castellanos Estrella opposed the decision. Supreme Court president Jorge Subero Isa said that the decision is not a discharge, but rather a "eminently technical one, it is about procedures." The accused in the case are Antonio Marte, Blas Peralta, Pedro Franco Badia, Fabio Ruiz, Milciades Amaro Guzman, Gervasio de la Rosa, Francisco Perez, Antonio Reynoso, Freddy Williams Mendez and Alfredo Culinario Linares. The decision comes on the heels of a meeting held between transport union leaders and President Leonel Fernandez after which the unions called off a national transport strike.

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