Court acquits ex- president’s close collaborator(Update)

Santo Domingo.- National District 4th Criminal Chamber instruction judge Leomar Cruz on Friday ruled to drop the charges of alleged corruption against Díaz, after the plaintiffs desisted from requesting an audit from the Accounts Chamber on the former official’s tenure.

Díaz’s attorney Ramón Núñez said the judge ruled for his client after the lawyers for the two organizations abandoned the hearing.

FILE. Attorneys for two civil society organizations walked out of the courtroom where a hearing in the embezzlement case against former Public Works minister Víctor Díaz Rúa was scheduled to take place Friday morning.

Remberto Pichardo, of the Citizens Anticorruption Movement (C3) and José Surum Hernández of the Justice First Foundation left the National District 4th Criminal Court chamber, claiming that after a judge declines to hear a case, they cannot schedule a new hearing.

They said the judge is intentionally disrupting the proceeding prior to dropping the charges indefinitely.

The case against Diaz has drawn wide attention, given his close relationship with former president Leonel Fernandez, whose three terms in office have afforded him a powerful influence over the judges.