Dominican general jailed over killing

The accused hear the verdict (photo courtesy of El Siglo newspaper)

A judge in the Dominican Republic has handed down 30-year jail sentences to a retired air force general and three others in connection with the killing in March 1975 of a left-wing journalist, Orlando Martinez.

I am an anti-communist and will be until death, and I did what my conscience commanded me to

Guilty gunman Rafael Lluberes Ricart

General Joaquin Antonio Pou Castro is one of a number of Dominican Republic military officers accused of belonging to a death squad which shot Mr Martinez after he criticised the government of the then president, Joaquin Balaguer.

Mr Balaguer always claimed to know who carried out the killing but refused to tell the judicial authorities.

The ruling was seen by many Dominicans as showing a new spirit in the judicial system Dominican Republic.

Despite some initial arrests and a reward for information offered by Mr Balaguer the case remained in limbo until President Leonel Fernandez, elected in 1996, ordered it reopened.

Gunned down

Orlando Martinez Howley, a member of the outlawed Dominican Communist Party, director of the opposition magazine 'Ahora' and a celebrated columnist for El Nacional newspaper, was gunned down in March 1975, on a Santo Domingo street.

Supporters keep alive the name of Orlando Martinez

He had been warned that his reporting offended high-ranking officials, including the president, his family said.

As well as General Castro and the gunman Rafael Lluberes Ricart, two other men were found guilty, including a former air force officer.

All four admitted their guilt.

"I am an anti-communist and will be until death, and I did what my conscience commanded me to," declared Lluberes Ricart.

As well as imposing the maximum prison sentence permitted by law, the four were each fined $312,500.

Blank page

It was unclear whether the dead man's family would pursue a case against Mr Balaguer, who despite being 93 years old and in frail health made an unsuccessful bid in May to win a seventh presidential term.

Balaguer: 'Silent, like a tomb'

In Mr Balaguer's 1988 autobiography, the former president left a blank page in his book to symbolise the untold story, a case he described as "silent, like a tomb".

He refused to testify at the two-week trial, citing poor health.

Prosecutors are now also investigating the 1994 disappearance of journalist Narciso Gonzalez, who had accused Balaguer of election fraud that year.