Delia Patricia Samudio, the former head of state-owned Petróleos Paraguayos (Petropar) during the administration of Mario Abdo Benítez, was sent to the Emboscada Women's Penitentiary to serve a four-year prison sentence. Her husband, José Costa Perdomo, sentenced to three years and nine months, was transferred to the men's prison in Emboscada.
The decision was made by a sentencing court, which rejected a defense motion for reconsideration of the decision to send the case file to the sentence-enforcement court and granted the request of prosecutor Silvio Corbeta. The court considered the convictions to be final, despite defense claims of pending appeals before the Supreme Court of Justice.
According to the report, both were convicted of breach of trust in a case involving irregularities in a Petropar tender. The case, known as the “Tonic Water” case, took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Public Ministry had requested the couple's preventive detention, arguing that their legal maneuvers were merely dilatory and represented a flight risk, calling for the revocation of the alternative measures to imprisonment that were in place.