Paraguay’s Public Prosecutor’s Office has kept two hypotheses open to explain the injuries suffered by Hugo Javier González in his cell: a fall caused by a medical episode or a possible assault. Prosecutor Luis Chamorro said the first line of inquiry gained strength after the testimony of Luis Giménez, the former governor of the Central Department’s cellmate, but that the conclusion depends on medical examinations and forensic work that are still pending.
Giménez said the two had gone to bed at around 9:30 p.m. and that, at approximately 11 p.m., he heard a noise. When he got up, he found Hugo Javier lying face down and called for help. According to Chamorro, the account is consistent with the statements of about 20 people involved in providing assistance and transporting him to the hospital, as well as with security-camera footage, which did not record anyone else entering the cell.
The prosecutor explained, however, that the number and severity of the injuries—including wounds to the face, cheekbones and both sides of the body—justify keeping the assault hypothesis open. A reconstruction will assess whether the account, the marks on the body and the dynamics of a fall from standing height are compatible. Investigators will also examine the fact that the site was cleaned before they began their work.
Giménez and inmate Fabio Martínez were taken on Monday, September 14, from the Esperanza Industrial Penitentiary Unit to the Public Prosecutor’s Office headquarters in Asunción. The testimony was initially suspended because of a power outage in the ordinary penal-units sector, and the prisoners returned to the facility. Giménez later gave a statement to the prosecutor and reiterated the account of a fall.
Investigators are also awaiting statements from the doctors who treated Hugo Javier during the first hours. Records cited in the investigation indicate that he had flu-like symptoms, a fever and meningitis, although the date when the infection began is still being determined. The final medical report should help establish whether a medical decompensation explains the trauma.
At the same time, lawyer Bernardo Villalba said he rules out a targeted attack against his client and reported that a constitutional challenge to Hugo Javier’s conviction is before the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice. The former governor is serving a 10-year sentence in the case involving 14 projects the prosecution considers fictitious. Villalba maintains that forensic examinations and official documents confirmed the projects existed and that 5,105,000,600 guaraníes were spent on them, but those claims are the defense’s position and do not, by themselves, alter the conviction currently in force.