World News | Dominican Court Bans Public Use of Nicknames for Police Operations, Legal Cases
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. The Dominican Republic's Constitutional Court has banned law enforcement in the Caribbean country from publicly bestowing nicknames on police operations or court cases, a common practice in the region.
San Juan (Puerto Rico), May 1 (AP) The Dominican Republic's Constitutional Court has banned law enforcement in the Caribbean country from publicly bestowing nicknames on police operations or court cases, a common practice in the region.
Until recently, Dominican officials had used an array of colourful words to describe such cases in public: larva, medusa, falcon, chameleon and anti-octopus.
Also Read | US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz To Step Down From Post After Signal Chat Fiasco, Alex Wong Also Out.
The name of the so-called “anti-octopus” case was born after a prosecutor investigating government corruption suggested that the brother of a former president had tentacles reaching into all government agencies.
The so-called “larva” and “falcon” operations centred around drug trafficking, while the case nicknamed “chameleon” was an investigation into allegations including fraud, embezzlement and identity theft.
Meanwhile, an operation nicknamed “medusa” focused on officials accused of corruption, including the country's former attorney general, Jean Alain Rodríguez.
Attorneys for Rodríguez recently asked that the court ban the public use of nicknames for cases and police operations, saying that it violated his dignity.
The Constitutional Court agreed in a ruling Wednesday, saying such nicknames should only be used as a secret strategy and not for public knowledge, adding that they violate a suspect's presumption of innocence and could affect a judge's impartiality. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)