SANTO DOMINGO (AP) — A judge in the Dominican Republic ordered an ex-presidential candidate held under house arrest and two former high-ranking officials jailed while awaiting trial in a record $347 million embezzlement case linked to illegal campaign financing.
Gonzalo Castillo, a former public works minister who won 37% of the vote when he ran in the 2020 general elections and lost to current President Luis Abinader, was held under house arrest on $365,000 bond. Donald Guerrero, former treasury minister, and José Ramón Peralta, former administrative minister to the presidency, were ordered held without bail for 18 months.
The judge also banned former comptroller general, Daniel Omar Caamaño, from leaving the country, and placed former director of the State Sugar Council, Luis Miguel Piccirilo, under house arrest.
It wasn’t immediately clear if their attorneys would appeal the decision. A total of 20 suspects have been arrested in the case. Officials of Castillo’s Dominican Liberation Party have accused prosecutors of investigating only former government officials while turning a blind eye to corruption allegations against Abinader’s current administration.
The Dominican Republic’s justice system allows authorities to hold suspects in jail without bond or under house arrest ahead of trial.
Judge Kenya Romero also stated that prosecutors have a total of 18 months to investigate what is considered the country’s biggest corruption case.
Last month, authorities arrested Castillo and other suspects accused of paying bribes, laundering assets and illegally financing the previous electoral campaign after embezzling $347 million in government funds.
Abinader has vowed to crack down on corruption and impunity. Last year, police arrested Jean Alain Rodríguez, the Dominican Republic’s former attorney general, and others accused of diverting government funds in an unrelated case.
Also arrested in other cases are several high-ranking government officials with ties to former President Danilo Medina.
By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA/Associated Press