preventive custody

[wuarhat]

I just read about murderer Jean Luis Valdez being sentenced to one year of preventive custody. This is the second time in recent memory that I've read here of such a sentence for a murderer. It sounds like a light sentence for murder. I am assuming that since there hasn't been a trial that preventive custody is like being held over for trial without bail in the USA, but would like to hear an explanation from anyone who really knows.

[Chirimoya]

It means on remand while awaiting trial. Some prisoners in Dominican jails have been there for years and still haven't been tried.

[Fabio J. Guzman]

The new code of criminal procedure made preventive custody the exception, the rule being that a suspect will not be put in jail until a guilty verdict is pronounced (Art. 222) since he or she is presumed innocent until then.

Preventive custody may be ordered by a judge if there are sufficient elements that make it likely that the person has committed a crime, and that he or she may hide or flee ('existen elementos suficientes para sostener, razonablemente, que es autor o cómplice de una infracción, que puede ocultarse, fugarse o ausentarse del lugar") (Art. 225).

The system is, in my opinion, more liberal than in the U.S.

[Hillbilly]

And, FYI: Now they can't find the lovely Sobeida, the chick with the 4.6 million in dollars in her Humbee....gee, you think???

HB