Court Keeps Seven Defendants in Jail in Senasa Case

A court upheld pretrial detention for seven of eight defendants in the alleged multibillion-peso theft from the Dominican Republic's national health insurer. One defendant was moved to house arrest.

The Second Criminal Chamber of the Court of Appeals of the National District upheld pretrial detention for seven of the eight defendants in the case over the alleged theft of billions of pesos from the Seguro Nacional de Salud (Senasa). According to Diario Libre, the appeal hearing lasted more than 12 hours, from the morning until night.

The court changed the measure only for Elsa De la Rosa Vásquez, who was placed under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor after admitting the charges against her. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the judges rejected the appeals filed by the other defendants' lawyers. The seven who will remain in pretrial detention are Angeury Guzmán Vásquez, Juan Henry Poueriet, Wander Manuel Díaz Encarnación, Ysabel Heredia Vallejo, Hanna Rashell Rodríguez Almánzar, Laura Altagracia Santana Evangelista, and Juan Gabriel Rodríguez Ravelo.

The defendants face charges including state fraud, coalition of officials, prevarication, document forgery, bribery, money laundering, and diverting funds by billing for medical services never provided, impersonating insured members, and breaching databases.

In explaining their decision, judges Ysis Muñiz, Teófilo Andújar, and Ingrid Fernández said that the defendants' social, employment, economic, and family ties are not, on their own, the only factor in deciding on pretrial detention. The gravity of the offenses, the harm to victims, possible restitution, and the potential sentence must also be weighed.

The case was launched last year by the Public Prosecutor's Office under the name Operación Cobra. Among the defendants is Santiago Marcelo F. Hazim Albainy, a former director of Senasa, along with other former officials and private individuals under various restrictive measures.

Separately, the Public Prosecutor's Office carried out another case in June related to alleged irregularities in health funds. Three people linked to the Patronato Cibaeño Contra el Cáncer and the Instituto Oncológico Regional del Cibao (IORC) were arrested: Héctor Antonio Lora Cruceta, former president of the Patronato's board, and his wife, Luisa Yasiris Guzmán, who are in pretrial detention, and his former wife, Dilcia Isabel Vargas Sánchez, who is under house arrest.