The long and terrifying ordeal of Canadians arrested in the Dominican Republic after an airline crew reported contraband hidden on their plane turns out to be even though it all comes to an end.
Prosecutors at the Punta Cana hotel filed court documents Friday that would allow the Pivot Airlines team and its passengers to leave the country after spending seven months in prison and space arrest, Pivot CEO Eric Edmondson said.
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The Canadians were detained despite airline workers reporting bags of what turned out to be cocaine hidden on the plane, and a local ruling said there is no evidence linking them to drugs.
“We are deeply relieved that those five Canadians will soon return home to their families and enjoy them,” Edmondson said in a statement, referring to his own employees. “We are grateful for their courage, resilience and honesty in this devastating ordeal. “they return to Canada, they will return as heroes, as they deserve.
Rob DiVenanzo, the captain of the flight, said the team got news from Pivot around nine p. m. Thursday night, while they were in their Dominican “safe house. “They had heard rumors in August that prosecutors withdrew the fees opposing them, and then nothing happened in the last 3 months, he said.
“It was a little surprise, a smart surprise,” he said in an interview. “Right now I’m excited but I’m also cautiously optimistic. “
The past seven months have been an emotional rollercoaster for him, his wife and two children in southern Ontario, DiVenanzo said.
“Being separated, it just came here to be hell for us. “
The move presented through prosecutors still wants to be approved by the court, which Pivot expects to be early next week.
Given all that has happened in this ordinary case, the company is urging the Dominican government to get the ball rolling “without delay,” the CEO said.
Early Friday, Edmondson followed a more cautious note, saying the organization had already obtained data twice but had come to nothing.
“It’s good,” he said in an interview. flat.
The Canadians were jailed for several days after reporting the smuggling and then released on bail after giving up their passports and agreeing to leave the Dominican Republic. They were never charged or questioned by police, Pivot says. And prosecutors appealed the bail decision, raising the specter of his return to prison.
With its harsh remedy of foreigners who gave the impression of being guilty only of reporting a crime, the case led to the softening of a legal formula that has been accused through various foreign instances of widespread corruption and human rights violations.
Officials from the Dominican embassy in Ottawa and the country’s public prosecutor’s office, which is charging fraud, may be contacted for comment before the deadline.
As the employees’ nightmare dragged on, the airline lobbied the federal government for help, while unions representing the team warned of the risks of flying into the country.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the plight of Canadians with Dominican President Luis Abinader earlier this year, as did Foreign Minister Melanie Joly with her counterpart. In response to a query from conservative Senator David Wells last month, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra warned that the Dominican Republic risked sending a message to the world that it’s not for advertising teams to fly there.
Wells said Friday he was relieved by the latest news but dismayed that the federal government had done no more to secure his release.
“They’re usually diplomatic niceties,” he said. Sometimes when it comes to countries like the Dominican Republic that have suspicious justice systems, you have to play a more powerful role. “
The CRJ-100 Pivot jet had transported an organization of seven potential investors in an Alberta company and its visitors to Punta Cana in early spring. A new team returned to bring them back to Toronto on April 5, when a mechanic flying the plane found a bag in the avionics bay, a speaker under the plane.
The team reported their discovery to the airline, which then contacted the RCMP in Canada and Dominican police. Local officials found several more bags in the avionics bay and later stated they contained 210 kilograms of cocaine.
The team and passengers were then arrested and jailed, the men locked in a small mobile containing several accused drug traffickers, who threatened them and tried to extort them for nine days.
Judge Francis Yojary Reyes Dilone eventually released the Canadians on bail, saying there was no evidence that most workers and passengers had access to the hideout, and that there was no other evidence linking them to drugs.
Prosecutors had made accusations that the aircraft and its occupants were just a front for drug trafficking, according to the judge.
In August, lawyers for the Canadian team received airport security video and found footage of hitting suitcases in the avionics bay early in the morning before the flight’s scheduled departure, Edmondson said.
The hotel video indicated that Pivot workers were in their rooms the entire time. But police and prosecutors gave the impression of forgetting the evidence, the director-general said.
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