Follow-up information requested from Governments - Report No 349, March 2008

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 142. The Committee last examined this case, relating to the trial and sentencing in the first instance for “breach of trust” of the three presidents of the trade union confederations, the United Confederation of Workers (CUT), the Paraguayan Confederation of Workers (CPT) and the Trade Union Confederation of State Employees of Paraguay (CESITEP), Mr Alan Flores, Mr Jerónimo López and Mr Reinaldo Barreto Medina, at its meeting in June 2007 [see 346th Report, paras 145 and 146]. On that occasion, the Committee had expressed the hope that due process of law would be respected in the framework of the judicial proceedings initiated against the trade union officials and that the proceedings would be concluded in the near future and had requested the Government to send its observations without delay on the communication dated 6 June 2006 from CESITEP, which reported that the criminal proceedings had not been concluded and alleged further violations of procedural rights in the second instance (in particular the failure to produce the evidence requested to follow up on a development in the second instance).
2. 143. In a communication dated 8 June 2007, the Government reported that the judicial case in question had been initiated in March 1998 following an investigation into the administration of the National Workers’ Bank (BNT). In the ruling handed down in first instance, the then judge Hugo López had sentenced 23 persons to terms of imprisonment of ten, seven and four years for their part in the embezzlement of bank assets, those persons including the former bank president, who received the maximum sentence, along with the other former bank administrators. An appeal was lodged against the ruling before the Appeals Chamber. The trade unionists who were sentenced have sought to have the legal proceedings annulled on the grounds that they related to debt. For that purpose, they presented as alleged new facts the cases brought by the bankrupted BNT against the CESITEP, CUT and CPT, which had expired. After several months of investigation, the appeal was rejected by the court, and the defence again appealed against that decision. This was also unsuccessful on the grounds that the period allowed had elapsed, and the plaintiffs then appealed again in mid-2005. Faced with this situation, the Appeals Chamber referred the case to the Supreme Court of Justice, which means that examination of the original sentences has again been postponed until the appeal is decided. It is worth noting that, in December 2003, Alan Flores, Jerónimo López and Reinaldo Barreto Medina applied to the court to suspend the precautionary measures imposed on them (house arrest), basing their application on article 19 of the National Constitution and on sections 236, 250 and others of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The First Chamber of the Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the application and consequently suspended the measures imposed on the trade union officials, ordering them to report any change of address or travel outside the country in writing to the courts and to the police.
3. 144. The Committee takes note of this information. The Committee regrets the significant amount of time that has elapsed since the initiation of legal proceedings (almost ten years), expresses the hope that the proceedings will be concluded in the near future and requests the Government to inform it of the final ruling that is handed down in relation to the trade union officials in question.