The family of one of the 231 people who died filed the first complaint on Tuesday, April 15 for “involuntary homicide” against those responsible for the Jet Set nightclub whose roof collapsed on April 8, but also against “institutions” for “omissions in the achievement of legal duties.”
“It is justice that we ask and that we hope to deserve” after this “avoidable tragedy,” writes Félix Humberto Portes Núñez, lawyer for the widow and parents of Virgilio Rafael Cruz Aponte, who died during the drama.
Considered the greatest tragedy of the century in the Dominican Republic, the disaster exceeds, in terms of human evaluation, the 2005 fire of a prison in Higuey, in the east of the country, which had cost him the lives of 136 detainees.
The age of the team indicated
“It continues unequivocally that there are enough” elements to accuse the managers of the “involuntary homicide” album, according to the text of the complaint presented to the Prosecutor’s Office whose AFP obtained a copy.
The Jet Set, “that, 52 years after its opening, knew leaks, partial falls of pieces and dust of the roof.”
“The weakening of the structure due to antiquity, a fire, repairs, infiltration, undue charges on the ceiling, such as stores, heavy air conditioning equipment,” they have also indicated in the complaint.
The victim’s family also accuses those responsible for having negligence by not carrying out adequate planning in (…) the design of security, strengthening the structures and ceiling of the building and has not respected regulations and standards for this purpose. “
“A chain of structural negligence”
The lawyer also attacks the authorities: “The facts described here testify to a structural negligence chain and security omissions, attributable not only to managers, shareholders of the disco, but also to public institutions.”
“These institutions, lacking their inspection, surveillance and control duties, violated their legal functions and favored a dangerous environment that culminated in this preventable tragedy,” accuses the lawyer.
“The Dominican State can continue for civil liability, both for illegal acts committed by its agents and for omissions in achieving their legal duties, when these actions or omissions cause damage to people,” adds the text.
A commission created to determine the causes
The disco roof collapsed on April 8 at 12:44 am (04:44 GMT), while between 500 and 1,000 people attended a concert of the Merengue star Rubby Pérez, who died during the accident. Some 189 people were rescued.
The Presidency announced the creation of a commission of national and international experts to determine the causes of the disaster.
On Monday, President Luis Abinader stressed during his weekly press conference: “We will respect the fact that justice will be done as it should be. And he will not find any government intervention.”
The president indicated that he did not have the obligation to supervise private construction work in the country and acknowledged: “There is a void in the law, which we must resolve.”
Source: BFM TV
