Migrant members of ‘notorious’ gang accused of $35 million fraud in Paraguay win reprieve towards deportation from Britain after telling courtroom they may be harmed in jail

Migrant members of an ‘infamous’ gang accused of $35 million fraud in Paraguay win reprieve against deportation from Britain after telling the court they might be harmed in prison 

The pair of Paraguayan gang members, who are ‘no ordinary prisoners’, have won an appeal on human rights grounds against an immigration tribunal that ordered their extradition to Paraguay.

The ‘high profile’ migrants, who are a divorced couple, claimed they would be at risk of violence from other prisoners because their crimes are so well known in the country.

They also said that they were both too medically unwell to be extradited because they would not be able to receive the correct medical care.

The couple cannot be named for legal reasons but were referred to as EG and MS.

They moved to the UK in 2007 and were once a married couple, it was heard.

After criminal proceedings were launched against them in Paraguay in June 2012 and an Interpol notice was subsequently issued, the couple were arrested in London in 2015.

They were accused in Paraguay of money laundering and defrauding a state-run pension fund of $35 million.

In 2016 the extradition matter came before Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where the issue was found to be whether the prison they would be held in pending a trial would breach their human rights.

MS was to be held in Tacumbú prison in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, in a separate unit away from the general population, and EG would be held in a women’s prison.

This was found to be adequate, and the extraditions were passed to the Home Office to be processed.

The migrants appealed the decision in 2017, and they were heard in the First-tier Tribunal, but they were dismissed on human rights grounds.

In 2021, they made new representations to the Home Office, stating that there was a higher level of violence in prisons in Paraguay, the level of healthcare had diminished, and the health of the couple had deteriorated.

They were refused leave to remain despite appealing the decision on another two occasions.

They have now appealed again to the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber and have won a reprieve against their extradition.

EG has significant medical issues because she has previously suffered from breast and skin cancer, as well as having chronic asthma, for which she needs both preventative and relieving inhalers.

A medical report explained that a failure to comply with that treatment regime, or patchy compliance, could lead to an acute asthma attack within weeks.

She also has severe mental health issues and suffers from PTSD, depression, anxiety and has self-harmed in the past.

Her prison in Paraguay made assurances that EG’s medical needs would be met, but this was challenged by an expert – who said there is a ‘real risk’ she would not have access to the required medication.

MS has also suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure.

The experts on prisons agreed that he would be under the same constraints as EG for access to medication.

The prison also claimed to be able to cope with the security challenges that EG would face, being a ‘notorious’ criminal.

They said she would be placed in a senior citizen ward, with just 22 other inmates, with its own backyard and high security requirements.

A prisons expert visited the prison in 2023 and said that the ward no longer existed because, during the Covid pandemic, it was used as a place to house infected prisoners.

Justice Charles Bourne said: ‘Further, evidence had been presented to the Tribunal that this risk had a particular character in Buen Pastor.

‘EG is infamous in Paraguay for her alleged involvement in stealing $35 million. The evidence presented by [a country expert] to the Tribunal highlighted two classes of prisoners who would be likely to have a particular interest in her for that reason.

‘The first are high-ranking members of the EPP, a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group, whose modus operandi has included kidnap for ransom in order to fund their insurgency.

‘The other are members of Clan Rotela, a Paraguayan organised crime group who had, in the hiatus between the Divisional Court hearing and the First-tier Tribunal appeal, consolidated their ascendancy by driving out Brazilian-based rivals.

‘The expert evidence was to the effect that either one of these groups could cause EG harm if they could get access to her. None of it is addressed in the decision.

‘We are satisfied that this was evidence of a different order from the general threat of violence considered by previous tribunals.

‘Indeed, that would also seem to have been the view of the Secretary of State when she decided to treat EG’s further submissions as a ‘fresh’ claim. The failure to engage with that evidence was therefore a further error in approach.’

MS was also found to be at risk of experiencing violence in Tacumbú prison.

This prison was found to fall below the standards on Article 3, and he would be at risk of extortion and threat because of the allegation that he had stolen large amounts of money.

Although the prison had made assurances in 2016 that he would be placed in a special unit called the Libertad, the ruling group of the prison had changed hands and was now run by a ‘violent narco-trafficking gang’.

Justice Bourne said: ‘It has always been accepted that the conditions in which the general population live in Tacumbú prison fall below Article 3 standards. It has always been accepted that MS was no ordinary prisoner.

‘The crime that he has been accused of has gained him significant notoriety in Paraguay, and this gave rise to specific concerns in his case.’