42
Actions taken to obtain a statement from Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda and
Sabino Augusto Montanaro and their eventual extradition within the
criminal proceedings in the case of Agustín Goiburú
61(65) On July 13, 1989, the Third Criminal Court of First Instance ordered that
informative statements should be taken from General Alfredo Stroessner and Sabino
Augusto Montanaro, via letters rogatory to the judicial authorities of Brazil and
Honduras, because it was known that these persons had been granted political
asylum in the said countries respectively.
61(66) On August 1, 1989, this court sent the said letters rogatory to the President
of the Supreme Court of Justice for processing and forwarding to the respective
judges in the Honduran and Brazilian jurisdictions, requesting the informative
statements from the “accused fugitives from justice,” Sabino Augusto Montanaro and
Alfredo Stroessner, respectively. On November 24, 1989, the said court asked the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to advise it whether the letters rogatory had been
processed and, if so, to indicate the date on which they were forwarded, as well as
any other relevant information.
61(67) On December 18, 1989, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that on
November 20, 1989, it had forwarded the letter rogatory to the Chargé d’Affaires of
the Republic of Honduras in Paraguay, and was therefore awaiting news. Also, on
December 30, 1989, the Ministry stated that, on December 2, 1989, the letter
rogatory had been forwarded through the Paraguayan Embassy in Brazil and was
now at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; it was waiting further news.
61(68) In May 1990, December 1997 and November 1998, the Court of First
Instance again requested information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding
compliance with the processing of the letters rogatory.
61(69) There is no evidence among the information provided to the file in the
instant case of whether the informative statements of General Alfredo Stroessner
and Sabino Augusto Montanaro, requested in letters rogatory sent to the Brazilian
and Honduran authorities, were made or received by the Paraguayan courts.
61(70) In November and December 1997 and July 1998, Elva Elisa Benítez de
Goiburú submitted various request for official letters to be sent by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs requesting information concerning extradition. Also, in November
1998, she asked that an official letter be sent to INTERPOL and to the National Police
informing them of the preventive detention decreed against Sabino Augusto
Montanaro. She repeated her requests in February 1999.
61(71) On February 26, 1999, the Fourth Criminal Court of First Instance
communicated to the National Police Headquarters that it had decided to order the
preventive detention of Sabino Augusto Montanaro. On June 24 and August 4, 1999,
the Head of the INTERPOL Office in Asunción requested the court, inter alia, to send
some personal information on Mr. Montanaro, photographs and fingerprints, a
summary of the crime of which he was accused, and also a copy of the judicial
decision ordering his preventive detention for the purpose of extraditing him. This
request was repeated on September 10, 1999.
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