The criminal chamber of the highest court rejected an appeal filed by the former senator’s defense. The trial will begin in April. The Paraguayan court has not yet resolved the case of his extradition to Argentina.
The criminal chamber was of the opinion that the lawsuit by Kueider’s lawyers and his secretary Iara Guinseldid not meet the minimum requirements. Lawyers Marcelo Bogado and Carlos Arévalo tried to get the court to review a decision made in the first instance and confirmed by another court.
This was the justification given by Ministers María Carolina Llanes Ocampos, Manuel Dejesús Ramírez Candia and Luis María Benítez Riera An “appeal procedure” was attempted. And they argued that it was a non-existent procedural route, local website El Observador de Paraguay reported.
In this sense, the members of the Chamber concluded that the appeal did not meet the requirement of objective contestability, which made the analysis of the other formal budgets unnecessary.
Kueider and Guinsel are charged with attempted smuggling. The case was opened after both attempted to import $200,000 into Paraguay without explanation in the early morning of December 4, 2024. Since that moment they have been under house arrest.
Lawyers Arévalo and Bogado tried to have the Paraguayan prosecutor’s office quash the charges. In this context, they requested the final dismissal of both defendants.
In addition, they requested that the video of the December 4, 2024 shooting be excluded as evidence. The records show the entire process in which his truck was stopped as he attempted to enter Paraguay from Brazil and his money was confiscated.
Economic Crime Appeal Court judge Humberto Otazú rejected both proposals. The judge’s decision was later confirmed by the First Chamber of the Criminal Appeal Court of the jurisdiction specializing in economic and organized crime.
In line with this, the court explained that agreeing to the proposal of the former senator’s lawyers and his secretary would have meant enabling improper use of resources. This violates the principles of procedural economy and good faith, they added. In addition, there would be a risk that the criminal proceedings would be paralyzed indefinitely.
The maximum sentence for the charge of attempted smuggling is two and a half years. In Paraguay, sanctions take effect after a two-year prison sentence.
With its decision, the criminal chamber of the Paraguayan court called for a tough trial. The hearings were scheduled for last October. However, they were postponed first to November and then to Monday, April 20, 2026.
The former senator also filed a formal complaint with the neighboring country’s court over the mechanisms by which his extradition to Argentina will be handled. The request was made by San Isidro Federal Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado. The judge is investigating him for money laundering, illicit enrichment and other crimes.
The federal case arose as a derivative of another file called “Securitas.” There, the private security company is investigating alleged bribe payments to public organizations. The aim was to comply with monitoring contracts. One of the companies under scrutiny is the state-owned energy company Enersa from Entre Ríos. Arroyo Salgado linked Kueider through some messages found on an inmate’s cell phone in Securitas.
There was also a complaint that was filed based on a report by the publication El Disenso. It described an asset that at first glance would not correspond to Kueider’s income. These included, for example, luxury apartments in an exclusive tower in Paraná. They appeared in the assets of a company, Betail SA, in the name of the former senator and the people Justice considers his front men.
At the same time, investigations against the former lawmaker for illicit enrichment began in Concordia, Entre Ríos. The case is being tried in the Edwin Bastián Guarantee Court with José Arias as prosecutor.
The situation led to a jurisdictional conflict that reached the Supreme Court in early November. The file was forwarded to the Attorney General for an opinion on which of the two courts will continue the investigation.
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