Former Paraguayan senator Hernán Rivas was sentenced to eight years in prison for the indirect production of public documents with false content and the use of public documents with false content. The sentence was below the 12 years sought by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which attributed three episodes linked to Rivas’s professional qualifications and actions by state bodies to him.
The trial court was composed of María Fernanda García de Zúñiga, presiding, Yolanda Portillo and Juan Carlos Zárate Pastor. García de Zúñiga and Portillo voted for an eight-year sentence; Zárate dissented and argued for a 14-year sentence. Rivas will remain free while the conviction is not final.
The charges, brought by prosecutors Patricia Sánchez, Luz Guerrero and Christian Benítez, linked the case to three acts: Chamber of Deputies Resolution No. 1,438, issued in 2020, appointing Rivas as a representative on the Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados (JEM), Paraguay’s body that tries judges and prosecutors; the professional registration granted by the Supreme Court of Justice in 2021 through Minutes No. 4,773; and Senate Resolution No. 21, issued in 2023, appointing him to the JEM again. Rivas went on to preside over the body.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Alba Zaracho sought acquittal and challenged both the investigation and the legal definition of the charges. She said efforts to locate university records had not been exhausted and questioned the absence of searches and seizures of hard drives. The defense also said the first request for documents was made in 2023, after the five-year document-retention period the institution said it applied from 2016. Zaracho also challenged the demand for attendance sheets kept for eight or ten years, arguing that the law does not specify which documents must be retained or for how long.
Regarding the Ciudad del Este branch, the defense cited four former students who, according to documents sent by the Ministry of Education, had studied there and obtained diplomas. Zaracho also argued that the prosecution had not described a specific action by Rivas to obtain or use the documents, and maintained that the absence of records was not enough to rebut the presumption of innocence. The court rejected the request for acquittal.
The verdict upheld the charge of indirect production and use of public documents with false content, linking it to the acts that enabled the professional registration to be issued and to the appointments to the JEM. The decision is not final and may be appealed.