SANTO DOMINGO.- The family and lawyers of a 12-year-old girl who was brutally raped last year by seven men are demanding an immediate investigation by government and police officials into what they say were “serious faults” in the judicial process, including the “inexplicable” release yesterday of the only suspect held in prison.

At an emotional press conference at the Dominican Journalism College this morning, Sergia Galvan, Executive Director of the Women and Health Collective (CMS) read from a statement describing how Miguelina Cuevas, a pastor in the town of Mella in Independencia province, found the victim in the house where she lived with her mother, naked and bleeding, with multiple bruises and bite marks on her body. The girl told Cuevas that seven or eight men had taken turns raping her vaginally and anally for two days. She was unable to walk, so Cuevas brought her to her house and bathed her, and later took her by bus to report the crime to the authorities in Mella, and then to the hospital in nearby Duvergé.

From there, she was sent to the hospital in Jimaní without receiving any medical attention, Galvan said. In Jimaní, a legal medical examination was ordered but not carried out until the victim fainted during what Galvan called “a poorly executed and confusing” interrogation by justice officials. The victim was returned to Duvergé and admitted to hospital for seven days.

The girl identified her attackers as Juan Carlos Cuevas, Ernesto Perez (Meneo), Juan de la Rosa Urbaez, Manuel E. Marmolejos, Tirson Vásquez Mancebo, and three others known only by nicknames. Perez was the only suspect imprisoned, and his release was announced at a hearing yesterday “without debate or question,” Galvan said.

In the course of the investigation psychological and physical examinations conducted by the CMS revealed that the victim’s 8-year-old sister may also have been abused, but the case was thrown out because pathological evidence was deemed inconclusive by the Institute for Forensic Pathology.

The girls had lived with their mother, who suffered from mental health problems, since the death of their father in 2000. Their mother was found dead of three gunshot wounds to the head one day before the sexual assault. An investigation into that murder has yet to be conducted.

The girls’ aunt, Rosa Gomez, broke down in tears as she delivered a statement at this morning’s press conference demanding an explanation and apology from public officials for the victim’s “shameful” treatment and an internal investigation by the Prosecutor General, Supreme Court President and Chief of National Police into the handling of the case. “Where is the justice in our country?” she asked. “Why don’t we have protection for our girls?”

Added Galvan, “The state never adopted a position of responsibility. The damage is serious.”