DOMINICAN POLITICS II #3: DOMINICAN JUSTICE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 004743

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: DR PGOV CJAN
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN POLITICS II #3: DOMINICAN JUSTICE
REVIVED: PLAN RENOVE AND ESTHER AGELAN CASASNOVAS

REF: SANTO DOMINGO 4689


1. (SBU) This is the third in a series reporting on the
second year of the administration of Dominican president
Leonel Fernandez.

Dominican Justice Revived: Plan RENOVE and Esther Agelan
Casasnovas
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Justice Esther Agelan Casasnovas has suddenly become the very
visible and not blindfolded face of justice for the Dominican
Republic. On October 17 after 49 days of hearings Dominican
Judge Esther Agelan Casasnovas found guilty ten of the 14
defendents in the Plan RENOVE corruption case, accused of
rake-offs and manipulation of the Meja government's scheme
to subsidize the acquisition of Hyundai buses by transport
unions. Agelan sentenced former Interior Minister Pedro
Bada to four years of house arrest and imposed a fine of 15
million pesos, roughly USD 500,000 for misrepresentation,
improper procedures and favoritism in distribution of 3335
buses. Even harder hit was another former president of
RENOVE, Fabio Ruiz, who got four years in prison and a fine
of 10 million pesos, about USD 360,000, for
misrepresentations, fraud and embezzlement. Businessman
Milcades Amaro Guzman, secretary to the RENOVE board, was
given three years in jail for fraud and a fine of 5 million
pesos (US$167,000). President of the National Transport
Confederation Antonio Marte was convicted of the same charges
and sentenced to three years and a fine of 8 million pesos.

Agelan dismissed charges against former Foreign Minister Milo
Jimenez, Jr., who had initially presided RENOVE, and three
others. She formally declared the proceedings to constitute
a "complex case," thereby granting defendants 20 days to
lodge appeals before the sentences would otherwise be carried
out.

Former president Hipolito Mejia groused to the press about
"politicking" (politiquera) in the case but he did not
dispute the judge's integrity.

U.S. citizen Sam Goodson (aka Shlomo Ben-Tov) is in jail in
Miami pursuant to an extradition request from Agelan,
formulated after he ducked out of RENOVE hearings in April
and made his way across the island to Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
to take a flight back to his home town of Miami. Goodson put
together the export side of the RENOVE deal from Miami with a
percentage payment to Magma Motors, the licensed Hyundai
dealer in Santo Domingo.

This is Agelan's second major finding this month. In a
decision announced on October 10 she and Judge Katia
Miguelina Jimnez held the line against dissident Judge
Sergio Antonio Ortega on the Baninter bank fraud review,
voting to confirm charges against defendants Ramon Baez
Figueroa and Marcos Baez Cocco, overriding the investigating
magistrate's recommendation to drop charges against
influential operator Luis Alvarez Renta, and extending the
charges to include money-laundering.

These high-profile verdicts give a tonic jolt to the
judiciary and an admonishment that the days may be arriving
when Dominican customs of greasing palms, favoritism, and
skimming from government contracts will be more risky. A
study by non-governmental organization "Participacin
Ciudadana" published last year recorded the fact that of more
than 100 cases of corruption brought to trial over the past
twenty years, only one had resulted in a conviction.
Agelan's verdict, if held up by the appeals court, will
double that number and increase ten-fold the number of
individuals convicted.

But it is too early to celebrate. Another face familiar to
observers of the legal system is back on the scene:
congressional representative Radhames Ramos Garca, convicted
last March by the Supreme Court of smuggling 14 illegal
Asians into the country several years ago when he was serving
as a Dominican consul in Haiti. Ramos Garca managed to
delay his trial because he was subsequently elected to
Congress - parliamentary immunity meant that he could be
tried only by the Supreme Court, and only during legislative
recesses. He got a sentence of 18 months. In early October
he was released on parole, since with pre-trial detentions he
had then spent nine months and eight days in detention.
Yesterday he was back in the congressional staff building to
pick up the keys to his office. Congressmen never formally
considered the calls to expel from the legislature their
felonious colleague. He says that he intends to run for
re-election in the May, 2006 congressional elections. The
regional district attorney who authorized his parole
threatens to revoke that motion if Ramos Garcia takes his
place again in the current Congress.



2. (U) Drafted by Michael Meigs.


3. (U) This piece and others in our series can be consulted
at our SIPRNET web site,
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodmingo along with
extensive other material.

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