Santo Domingo.- National District 2nd Instruction Court judge Claribel Nivar yesterday ruled against ordering National Investigations Department (DNI) director Ramon Aquino to testify in the case against Sobeida Felix, who allegedly forms part of the money laundering network attributed to her paramour, the Puerto Rican murder convict Jose Figueroa Agosto.

She also declined issuing a bench warrant against former Assistant prosecutor Ricardo Manuel Sterlin Perez, who participated in Felix’s arrest on September 3, 2009, and in the search of the luxury condo tower Alco Paradiso, in the upscale sector La Esperilla.

The judge noted that since Perez holds a consular post in Morocco a subpoena would take 30 days via the Foreign Relations Minsitry.

Nivar gave Felix’s lawyer Felix Portes three minutes to chose two of the three witnesses on the Court’s list, among them colonel Elvin Familia, the officer who took part in the search and Felix’s arrest,

Prior to Portes’ motion the defense attorneys for Ricardo Ivanovich Smester, Eddy Brito and Juan Jose Fernandez Ibarra had asked the court to revoke the temporary incarceration order against them and dispose their immediate release.

Luis Aybar, Marino Elsevif Pineda, Francisco Javier Azcona and Manuel Moquete asked the court to set bond and other conditions for the release of their defendants, claiming that they don’t pose a flight risk and are willing to abide by any of the court’s requirements.