Paraguay’s attorney general, Emiliano Rolón Fernández, asked the Supreme Court of Justice and security authorities to reinforce protection for prosecutors working in oral trials. The Association of Public Prosecutors of Paraguay separately requested urgent preventive measures for Verónica Valdez and Jorge Arce, who represent the prosecution in the trial of former minister Arnaldo Giuzzio.
The requests followed an exchange in a courthouse corridor after the August 24 hearing. The association described Giuzzio’s remarks to the two prosecutors as direct threats and asked for reinforced security in the courtroom corridors and entrances, as well as an escort while the prosecutors enter, remain at and leave the Judicial Palace. Those are requests for preventive protection; they are the position of the attorney general’s office and the association, not a judicial finding that a threat occurred.
Giuzzio categorically rejected that interpretation. He said he had not threatened or intimidated Valdez and Arce, and described what happened as a forceful complaint over what he considers the failure to investigate allegations involving former president Horacio Cartes. He said his criticism was directed particularly at prosecutor Jorge Arce, whom he says had sought to dismiss a complaint against Cartes and has worked on investigations into alleged Seprelad leaks.
Giuzzio is on trial over allegations of aggravated passive bribery and extortion linked to Marcus Vinicius Espíndola Marqués de Pauda. Prosecutors allege that Giuzzio used a vehicle connected to Espíndola and that the businessman later sought to supply armored equipment and bulletproof vests to the state. The tenders were not opened. Giuzzio’s defense says the case is political retaliation for allegations he made against Cartes; that is the defense’s position, and the criminal case remains for the court to decide.
The incident and the underlying criminal case are separate questions. The reporting available on the exchange records the competing accounts and the requests for precautionary measures; it does not establish criminal responsibility for the exchange or resolve the charges against Giuzzio.