However, the lawyers of the public * ****service did not provide any conclusive evidence to accuse this group of people, mainly Canadians, who were arrested shortly after they found contraband in the "electronic cabin" of the plane.
in fact, one crew member found contraband, and another crew member reported this discovery. The National Post obtained a written copy of the judgment in Spanish and translated it.
Judge Francis Yojary Reyes Dilone ordered them to be released on bail. They were released after the Easter weekend, but they must stay in Dominica until the investigation is over.
Pivot Airlines has been lobbying to allow its crew to leave Dominica, saying that they were always in danger from drug dealers until they were able to leave.
However, the prosecutor admitted that "we are not sure that they are the people carrying the package" and "we will not prosecute people accused of carrying drugs on the plane".
However, the Ministry of the Interior said that the defendant was accompanied by another unnamed person who boarded the plane the day before.
This is "not a whim, nor a fabricated story". This is the defendant's own statement, "the prosecutor said, but did not elaborate.
Pivot Airlines declined to comment on the allegations on Thursday.
But in court, the defense lawyers said that all the defendants should be released immediately because of the lack of evidence against them.
A lawyer for the defendant who did not want to be named said that passengers "can't even enter the area where drugs were found because it is a restricted area".
A lawyer of Pivot employees said, "There is no evidence that they are * * * *" in this incident.
Judge Dillon pointed out that two crew members found contraband and reported the incident to the authorities. There was no evidence that other employees and passengers had been exposed to the hidden drugs or had any other connection with drugs. He said that according to the principles of proportionality, partiality and rationality, the "coercive measures" he took were not as complicated as those required by the prosecution.
Piwart said that the CRJ-1 regional jet manufactured by Bombardier arrived in Punta Cana on March 31st, carrying potential investors being entertained by an Alberta company. The plane was scheduled to leave on April 5, but drugs were found and arrested.
In the judgment, the judge quoted the captain as saying that he, the co-pilot, two flight attendants and a mechanic arrived in Dominica in the late afternoon of April 4th, and the plane was piloted by another crew member.
He said that before the plane took off, he and the co-pilot were in the cockpit and the mechanic appeared. He said that he found a black suitcase in the electronic cabin and took photos. The captain said that he informed the vice president of operations of Pivot, who informed the authorities and then asked all the crew and passengers to leave the plane.
He said that he met officials near the plane and pointed out where the mechanic found the bag. The police finally found seven other bags there, filled with cocaine. " The pilot said, "We think we did the right thing.
The mechanic confirmed that he found the original black bag and pointed out that "there should be nothing in it except cables".
Regardless of the merits of the Pivot case, Dominica * * * *, its legal system as a whole has a bad reputation.
Last year, Dominica ranked 94th among 139 countries in the world and 23rd among 32 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in the rule of law index of the World Justice Project. The rule of law index measures all aspects of a country's legal system. Latin America and the Caribbean ranked low in the absence of corruption, ranking 1th in the world and 96th in criminal justice.
In a report in 2, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) described a series of problems, including serious backlog, ineffective methods, corruption and lack of resources. According to the organization, most prisoners in Dominican prisons and national prisons are held without trial or conviction, and due process is rarely respected < P >.