DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: PROSECUTION SEGMENT FOR 8TH

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000371

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA, WHA/CAR DEPIRRO AND WARD, G/TIP

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB KCRM KFRD KWMN PHUM PREF SMIG DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: PROSECUTION SEGMENT FOR 8TH
ANNUAL TIP REPORT

REF: A. STATE 2731

B. SANTO DOMINGO 350


1. Please find the following information in response to REF A
questions regarding prosecution of human traffickers in the
Dominican Republic. This information completes Embassy's 8th
Annual TIP Report, initially submitted in REF B.

--------------
Investigations, Prosecutions, and Convictions
--------------


2. By the conclusion of the reporting period, the Dominican
Republic had made significant progress in investigations and
prosecutions vis-a-vis both the previous reporting period and
the period governed by the most recent interim report.

-- Trafficking in Persons: Domestic Investigations

The Dominican Attorney General's Office currently maintains
25 open investigations for trafficking under the Trafficking
in Persons Law (Law 137-03). All of these investigations are
for "sex trafficking" and the victims are minors in the
majority of cases.

In one of the 25 investigations, the Attorney General's
office has already obtained a order of preventative detention
for a German citizen alleged to have participated in the
trafficking of 14 Haitian women into the Dominican Republic
for sexual exploitation (i.e., forced participation in a
pornography ring).

-- Trafficking in Persons: Domestic Prosecutions

A total of seven cases were submitted for prosecution under
law 137-03 during the reporting period, but 2 were rejected
in a probable cause hearing by a "court of first instance" -
a court that performs a grand jury-like function. The other
5 cases carried through to trial.

Of the 5 cases that went to trial, 1 was for the trafficking
of an adult woman for prostitution by an Italian citizen, 1
was for labor trafficking, and 3 were for the trafficking of
minors for sexual exploitation. Of the latter 3 cases, 2
involved foreign pedophiles: in one case a Spaniard, in the
other a German.

None of the 5 cases at trial have reached a conclusion;
accordingly there have been no convictions during this
reporting period.

-- Government Officials

The 32 cases discussed in this section do not involve
senior-level government officials ("funcionarios") or
lower-ranking members of the police, the armed forces, or the
immigration authority ("empleados publicos").

The Attorney General's Office further clarified its response
to allegations of governmental complicity in the smuggling of
Chinese nations by noting the following: 1) neither the DNI
nor the J2 have shared with the Attorney General's Office
information sufficient to sustain an "official" investigation
-- in sum, the allegations made prior to the reporting period
by Clave Digital (a Dominican Investigative periodical)
appear to be unsupported; and 2) the Attorney General's
Office did conduct informal interviews of officials
implicated by the Clave Digital article, but again found
nothing sufficient to trigger the start of an official
investigation. As reported in REF B, the Attorney General's
Office asserts that gathering information from within the
insular Chinese community in the Dominican Republic is an
impossibility.

-- Possession and Distribution of Child Pornography

The Attorney General's Office reports an additional 7 open
investigations for the electronic possession and/or
distribution of child pornography under Law 53-07, a new law
first implemented during this reporting period.

Two additional investigations are underway in Santiago into
the production of child pornography, as governed by the Code
of Minors (Law 136-03).

An additional investigation/operation has been underway for 6
months to stop the distribution and prosecute the
distributors of a child pornography video (featuring only
foreign victims located outside the Dominican Republic) that

occasionally appears for sale in open-air "flea markets."

-- Begging Rings

The Attorney General's Office clarified the steps it took to
ascertain that Haitian children were not trafficked into the
Dominican Republic to participate in organized begging rings.
The Office conducted recorded surveillance of begging
children over a period of several weeks. The surveillance
revealed that children were dropped off by their parents, who
then came to collect them at the conclusion of the day.

-- Plea Bargaining

Embassy notes that Dominican law does not permit plea
bargaining.

-- Foreign Pedophiles

The Attorney General's Office stressed that, while foreign
pedophiles in the Dominican Republic may come from the United
States or Canada, the evidence suggests that they come
exclusively from Western Europe -- Spain, Italy, and Germany.


--------------
Cooperation with Foreign Governments
--------------


3. The Attorney General's Office noted cooperation with three
different foreign governments in the fight against
trafficking.

The Attorney General's Office is working particularly closely
with the Swiss government in a case of trafficking of
Dominican women to Switzerland for the purpose of sexual
exploitation. The Swiss government is currently holding a
German-national in custody on charges of trafficking and has
issued an arrest warrant (and filed an INTERPOL notice) for a
second German-national. The investigation is on-going and
Swiss federal prosecutors, as well as a member of the Swiss
Justice Ministry, have traveled to the Dominican Republic to
conduct interviews and gather evidence with the cooperation
of the GODR. It is thought that a Dominican-national
accomplice may be involved. If this individual is identified
and located in Dominican territory, Dominican officials
intend to prosecute locally.

The Attorney General's Office is also working with Turkish
authorities to gather evidence to better facilitate the
Dominican prosecution of a number of Dominican citizens
thought responsible for trafficking 13 Dominican women to
Istanbul for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Finally, the Attorney General's Office is working with the
Argentine government in a joint investigation of a brothel
outside of Buenos Aires where it is alleged that up to 15
women are being held in sexual slavery. Of particular note
is that fact that the sole Dominican victim, following her
escape and subsequent return to the Dominican Republic,
utilized the Attorney General's hotline/tip-line "Llame y
Vive" (Call and Live) to report the incident. The Embassy
believes this to be the first use of Llame y Vive as a
tip-line and notes that it came after significant Dominican
effort to publicize the line's existence.

In an aside, the Office took pains to remind the Embassy that
the GODR is assisting DHS-ICE in 2 cases in Puerto Rico that
involve the smuggling of Chinese nationals through the
Dominican Republic to the United States.
FANNIN