Judge summarily rejects habeas corpus petition by police officers convicted of extortion

A Paraguayan judge has rejected, at the outset, a preventive habeas corpus petition filed by two police officers convicted of extortion and subject to active arrest orders.

Judge Alfredo Barrios dismissed the petition from officer Evelyng Jazmín Núñez González and noncommissioned officer Cemión Arce Mendoza. Their lawyer, Zunilda González, had challenged the national arrest order issued by the criminal enforcement court.

The officers have final four-year prison sentences in the case. Their defense argued that a constitutional challenge against the rulings upholding the convictions remained unresolved and automatically suspended the sentence’s effects. The lawyer said the arrest order violated the officers’ liberty and due-process guarantees and caused irreparable harm.

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The arrest order prima facie responds to that legal authority.

Barrios rejected that reasoning at this stage. He cited Article 493 of Paraguay’s Criminal Procedure Code, which requires authorities to take the measures needed to enforce a final conviction. When a person sentenced to prison remains free, the provision calls for the necessary steps to secure that person’s appearance or arrest.

The judge said the challenged order appeared, at first glance, to fall within that legal authority. He also referred to the Supreme Court’s position that habeas corpus cannot serve as an appeal designed to replace ordinary legal remedies. The article ends while Barrios is explaining that reasoning.

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Habeas corpus does not constitute an appellate remedy intended to replace ordinary appeals.