The judge assessed the probative sufficiency of the elements presented by prosecutors Martha González and Quirsa Abreu.
Santo Domingo.- The news of the imposition of preventive detention on three men accused of the murder of lawyer Freddy Zarzuela García has caused a stir in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic.
Judge Kimberly Tatis, from the Judicial Office of Permanent Attention Services, responded to the request of the Prosecutor’s Office and ordered the coercive measures for the accused.
The defendants, Oliver Calderón Soriano, Luis Gabriel Taveras Marte and Yerminson or Jerminson Durán Cruz, face charges for violating several articles of the Dominican Penal Code that punish the crimes of criminal association, murder and robbery with violence.
The judge assessed the probative sufficiency of the elements presented by the prosecutors Martha González and Quirsa Abreu, and thought that there is enough evidence to directly link the accused with the lawyer’s death.
The murder of the lawyer Zarzuela occurred on Sunday, February 12, at his residence in the residential El Despertar, and his body was found two days later in a vacant area of the La Delgada community. According to investigations, the lawyer was strangled and then his body was thrown into some bushes.
By decision of the court, the defendants will serve preventive detention at the Rafey Hombres Correction and Rehabilitation Center. Calderón Soriano and Taveras Marte will serve six months in prison, while Durán Cruz will have to pay 800,000 pesos as a financial guarantee.
The murder of the lawyer has shocked the legal community of Santiago and has generated strong repudiation from society in general.
The imposition of pretrial detention and economic guarantees for the accused has been seen as an important step in the fight against impunity and violence in the country.
The authorities have assured that they will continue working to clarify the case and bring to justice all those responsible for the murder of the lawyer Zarzuela.