Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

CORRUPTION-PARAGUAY: Supreme Court Begins to Crumble

Alejandro Sciscioli

ASUNCION, Oct 27 2003 (IPS) - The resignation of two Supreme Court judges in Paraguay Monday hastened the process of overhauling the Court, while parliament prepared to hold impeachment trials for four of the nine remaining magistrates on corruption charges.

Judges Jerónimo Irala and Raúl Sapena handed in their resignations Monday to avoid political trial.

Last Friday, President Nicanor Duarte – who took office in mid-August pledging to wage an all-out fight against corruption – and his ruling Colorado Party lawmakers reached an agreement with the opposition to impeach six of the nine Supreme Court justices, including Irala and Sapena.

Sapena presented his resignation to the president of the Supreme Court, Bonifacio Ríos, who himself is facing impeachment.

In his letter, Sapena stated that ”the list of (Supreme Court justices) to be submitted to political trial was made public. Although several people involved in the negotiations said they would give us the chance to exercise our right to defence, we must take into consideration that our removal has been repeatedly mentioned in other statements.

”Under these circumstances, any defence that I put forth will be futile,” he added.

Irala presented his resignation through his lawyer, Daniel Mendoca, in a short note addressed to the head of the Senate.

The Supreme Court declared both posts vacant, in an extraordinary meeting, and the Council of the Magistracy will now have to issue a call for applicants to fill the two positions.

The resignations came as a surprise, because ”there were no signs that they were coming,” Jorge Seall, a Harvard-trained professor of constitutional, national and comparative law at the National University of Asuncion and the Catholic University, told IPS.

Seall said the resignations were ”a sign of dignity.”

”I have the highest esteem for Irala, and I doubt that any evidence of improper conduct would have been found. Although he might have committed some omissions, they would have mainly been a consequence of his increasingly poor health,” he said.

In Seall’s view, ”those who should be on the list of the magistrates to be tried are not on it” – a reference to justices Víctor Núñez and Antonio Fretes, the last two named to the Court, in what he described as ”unfortunate appointments.”

”They are from the core of the Argaña faction” of the Colorado Party, made up of the followers of Luis María Argaña, who was assassinated in 1999 while serving as vice-president, ”and they lack the professional qualifications to occupy such an important post,” said Seall.

Both Núñez and Fretes, as well as Wildo Rienzi, will remain on the Court.

Vice-President Luis Castiglioni described the resignations as ”a means for improving the justice system in general.”

Castiglioni expressed his hope that ”the best professionals will respond to the call for applicants, in order for the Council of the Magistracy to select the most qualified, and that the Senate and executive branch will not have too hard a time choosing the new members.”

The president and opposition leaders had agreed on holding impeachment trials for Irala and Sapena, Supreme Court president Ríos, and justices Luis Lezcano, Carlos Fernández and Felipe Santiago.

Ríos, Lezcano, Fernández and Santiago face charges ranging from nepotism to violations of the constitution.

After Argaña’s assassination in March 1999 and the mass protests that led to the resignation of then-president Raúl Cubas, the Court ruled in April 1999 that then-president of Congress Luis González Macchi was to complete Cubas’ term, which ended in August 2003.

But a number of jurists said the constitution clearly stipulates that early elections must be held when the country is left with neither president nor vice-president.

The local newspaper ABC Color reported that members of the Supreme Court are also accused of taking possession in June 2002 of an airplane that had been seized in an operation against a drug trafficking band. An attorney-general’s office report said the Court’s attempt to take control of the plane was illegal.

After the scandal broke out, the plane was put under the custody of the judge in the first instance court that ruled on the case.

In addition, a group of construction firms filed charges in the Court of the Exchequer last year, accusing the Supreme Court of fraud in the tendering process for the construction of a wing of the new Palace of Justice in Asuncion.

The lawsuit was later withdrawn, with no explanation by any of the concerned parties, and the Court put out a new call for bids.

And in a controversial ruling, the Supreme Court justices declared themselves ”unremovable” in May 2000, a decision that legal experts said ran counter to the constitution.

The legislature has not yet set a date for the impeachment trials.

According to the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, Paraguay is the fourth-most corrupt country in the world, only ahead of Haiti, Nigeria and Bangladesh.

It ranked 130th out of 133 countries included on this year’s ”corruption perceptions index”, which defines corruption as ”the abuse of public office for private gain,” and measures ”the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among a country’s public officials and politicians.”

Out of a possible high score of 10, Paraguay was assigned just 1.6 points, down from last year’s 1.7.