Sobeida: "It's no crime to receive an apartment as a gift"

SD. Sobeida Felix Morel is angry about the rumor that her children smuggled in cell phones to her prison cell in Najayo. She says she brought them from Puerto Rico.

In an interview given to Alicia Ortega in the Palace of Justice in Ciudad Nueva, and aired last night on SIN, Felix Morel said that it is not a crime to receive an apartment as a present. She complained that nobody asks many military people where the money for their villas and apartments comes from.

(Surprisingly, Felix Morel was moved last night to the District Attorney's offices, where she was questioned by the District Attorney Alejandro Moscoso Segarra, in the presence of her lawyer Felix Portes, who complained of an alleged violation of the rights of his client. "They have disrespected two sentences in her favor", Portes said.

Here is an extract of the SIN interview with Alicia Ortega (AO).

AO. Are you aware that you have committed a crime by introducing cell phones into the jail?

SFM. Yes, I committed the offense, not the children.

AO. But the authorities say that it was through the children that the cell phones were brought in?

SFM. I don't know why they say that. When you receive a visit, after they leave, they search you completely, and they take your closes off. I don't know how that person, Roberto Santana, dares to speak publically about the children.

AO. But you had the cell phones?

SFM. I have never denied having the cell phones.

AO. Then, who brought them in?

SFM. When I came back from Puerto Rico they did not check my suitcase. I brought my suitcase into Najayo and they did not check it.

AO. So, what you are saying is that you brought the cell phones from Puerto Rico?

SFM. Of course I did, and they have proof of that, and that the two BlackBerry chips are in the name of someone from Puerto Rico. The numbers are from Puerto Rico.

AO. According to what has been published in the press, you admitted that you have had communication with Figueroa Agosto?

SFM. False, I have not had any communication with Figueroa Agosto.

AO. You say you have not had any communication, but even his lawyers came from Puerto Rico to see you?

SFM. Yes, but we are talking about telephone communications. Of course I have had communications and I know how he is through his lawyers and my lawyer.

AO. Never by the cell phones that were confiscated?

SFM. I did not talk to him. This can be verified with the chips.

AO. Now the trial begins, a difficult process.

SFM. Well the truth is that with these authorities, I don't know what they want from me.

AO. But you are aware of the accusations filed against you?

SFM. I am aware, and of the authorities that we have.

AO. Yes but, let's talk, but not of the authorities. For example, the apartments and the buying power that you had at that moment.

SFM. They accuse me of having an apartment that Cristian Almonte bought me. Then we are going to have to convict the whole country or also the people that have no way of justifying an apartment, a vehicle, villas in Casa de Campo, a lto of things. I don't have any way of justifying it. I have said since the beginning that he bought me the apartment.

AO. You had no idea he was tied to drug trafficking?

SFM. No, nobody knew he was named Jose Figueroa Agosto.

AO. You never asked him where the money came from?

SFM. No, I never asked him that question.

AO. Not even out of curiosity>
SFM. No.

AO. Wasn't it in your best interest to know what the person you were living with was doing?

SFM. No, I never had the moment to ask him anything. Neither did I ever see a lot of money. He bought me an apartment, a lot of military people here have apartments and villas and nobody asks them that question.

AO. Is Sobeida Feliz Morel ready to face jail permanently if it was to be?

SFM. Yes, I am with the Lord, I am ready.

(It was interesting that at the end of the interview, with the microphone turned off, that Sobeida whispered something into the ear of the journalist Alicia Ortega.)