Bajac bribery case: convicted official seeks house arrest

Rafael Ramírez Doldán, the former judicial official convicted alongside former Supreme Court Justice Miguel Óscar Bajac in a major bribery case, is seeking house arrest on health grounds.

A hearing on the request will take place on Sept. 17 at 8:30 a.m. before the Specialized Criminal Enforcement Court for Economic Crimes, Corruption and Organized Crime No. 2. Judge María Lidia Wyder will preside.

Ramírez Doldán received a two-year-and-six-month prison sentence as an accomplice to Bajac, who was sentenced to three years as the perpetrator of aggravated passive bribery. The former official is being held at the Esperanza Industrial Penitentiary and will attend the hearing remotely.

Judge Wyder ordered his arrest in November 2025 after lifting the alternative measures that had allowed him to remain out of prison. Police arrested him on Nov. 25 during a routine check on Itá Ybaté Avenue and Iturbe Street in Asunción’s Barrio Obrero.

The court calculated that, after crediting the two months, one week and one day he had spent in custody at the start of the case, Ramírez Doldán should complete his sentence on March 17, 2028. His lawyers, Daniel Sosa Valdez and Carlos Abelardo Distéfano, now argue that health problems warrant home detention. The judge has ordered doctors from the judiciary and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to examine his general condition, the seriousness of his illness, whether it is terminal or prevents him from caring for himself, and any other relevant medical circumstances.