SANTIAGO.- Despite the Customs Agency’s (DGA) denial it had requested the release on bond instead of the eight month temporary incarceration against three of its ex employees charged with embezzling millions of pesos, the August 25 ruling of the Court of Appeals Penal Chamber reveals the contrary, news source hoy.com.do reports.

The scandal would be the first during the tenure of Rafael Camilo, who replaced the ironfisted Miguel Cocco after his death in May last year.

Page four of the Court ruling notes that Customs requested the release of the three defendants, adhering to the Justice Ministry’s conclusions that temporary incarceration be lifted and for bail to be set at RD$2.0 million, exit impediment and periodic visits to the Office of the Prosecutor.

Herald Estévez Peña, Miguel Angel Lazala and Adalberto Rosa Rosario, accused of embezzling more than RD$100 million, are all sons of senior officials and leaders of the ruling PLD party in the province.

According to newspaper Nacional, Customs spokesman Abinader Fortunato on Tuesday said “that’s in the hands of the justice of Santiago, that’s what the Customs director has always said, and we don’t intervene in the judicial processes.”

He said they continue being straightforward regarding this case and don’t intervene in issues in the scope of justice, “but it’s clear that we were (Customs) the ones who filed the charges.”

The Court of Appeals Penal Chamber described Customs’ request to release the accused on bail as “surprising and illogical,” when at the outset had refuted the Justice Ministry’s position.

According to the ruling handed down by the Court, Customs, through one of its lawyers, at the outset objected the Justice Ministry’s position to release the three on bail, telling the Court that it wasn’t just an economic crime, but rather a criminal conspiracy and forgery.

To justify its motion for their release the Justice Ministry told the Court that because of the speediness with which a lower court heard the case, it was perhaps the reason that incarceration prevailed, “but temporary incarceration isn’t justified because it’s a case of tax evasion, an economic crime.”