(SPP/IFEX)- On 26 April 2000, nine years since the murder of journalist Santiago Leguizamon were completed. The crime occurred in the Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero, situated on the border between Paraguay and Brazil. Due to the total impunity that surrounds this case, the SPP has asked the Paraguayan government to seek the cooperation […]
(SPP/IFEX)- On 26 April 2000, nine years since the murder of journalist Santiago Leguizamon were completed. The crime occurred in the Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero, situated on the border between Paraguay and Brazil. Due to the total impunity that surrounds this case, the SPP has asked the Paraguayan government to seek the cooperation of the Brazilian government in order to arrest the material and moral perpetrators of this crime, who are still living free in Brazilian territory.
The letter sent to President Luis Angel González Macchi states that it is necessary that the Brazilian authorities follow the orders of the International Police (INTERPOL) in order to arrest and extradite to Paraguay the Brazilian citizens accused by the Paraguayan courts of being the authors of the journalistâs murder.
Taking into consideration the impediments for the extradition of these persons, the SPP has suggested as a possible solution that the Paraguayan government ask that the alleged moral and material authors of this crime, while still in Brazil, be put at the disposition of the Paraguayan attorneys for the pertinent investigations.
During a meeting with SPP representatives, Minister of Foreign Affairs Juan Esteban Aguirre confirmed that there is no agreement signed with Brazil for the extradition of Brazilian citizens who commit crimes in Paraguay. The extradition agreement with Brazil can only be raised for cases of drug trafficking. The Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR), despite being in force for almost ten years, has not been of any help at all in solving this judicial oversight.
Leguizamonâs case must be urgently addressed, as the new Criminal Procedural Code states that all cases in which a final sentence has not been issued by March 2000 will be definitively closed.
The SPP also urged the president to ensure that the National Police headquarters submit the results of the police investigations of the Leguizamon case, carried out in 1991-1992 and 1996-1997. These results were requested a number of times by the Pedro Juan Caballero courts but to date there has been no response whatsoever.
SPP notes that nine years have passed since the murder and thus far none of the fourteen Brazilian citizens who were prosecuted have been arrested. Two of the four alleged murderers have been killed. The other two remain alive and free, along with the alleged intellectual authors of the crime, Daniel Alvarez Georges and Luis Enrique Rodriguez Georges.
