Hugo Javier case: CCTV footage handed over to prosecutors

The complete CCTV record from the prison cell of former Central governor Hugo Javier González has been handed to Paraguay’s Public Prosecutor’s Office as investigators work to clarify how he was found injured at La Esperanza Industrial Penitentiary.

Justice Minister Rodrigo Nicora said the recordings did not show any third party entering González’s cell before he was found and assisted. He said prosecutors needed to take custody of the digital video recorder themselves to ensure the evidence had not been contaminated or altered.

Criminalistics and forensic laboratory specialists have visited the prison to gather information at the scene and take initial statements. Prison personnel and the inmate who shared González’s cell have also been summoned to give formal testimony at the prosecutor’s office.

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What is recorded is that no one entered and no one left that cell.

Nicora said González entered cell two in D High Pavilion at 3:30 p.m. “What is recorded is that no one entered and no one left that cell” after González was seen going inside, he said.

According to the Justice Ministry’s reconstruction, cellmate Luis Giménez alerted guards at about 11:12 p.m. after hearing a noise. Giménez said he had been sleeping with the lights off, then turned on the light and saw González lying face down on the floor, muttering, with traces of blood. Nicora rejected claims of negligence or a delay in medical assistance, saying the recordings and other material showed that help arrived in less than a minute.

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He gets up from the bed, turns on the light and sees Hugo Javier lying face down on the floor, muttering, and sees traces of blood.