Paraguay

Italian judges – while excluding any interference in the exercise of foreign jurisdiction, with the obvious implications this entails in relation to defence arguments concerning the violation of procedural rules of the Paraguayan legal system – must nonetheless not confine themselves to a merely formal review of the documentation attached to the extradition request, which would effectively result in an automatic and passive acknowledgment. Rather, they must ascertain that such documentation sets out the reasons why, from the perspective of the requesting State’s procedural system, the commission of the offence by the person sought has been considered probable. Accordingly, any evidence of innocence, not known to the judicial authority of the requesting State and submitted for the first time before the Italian court, may be relevant in extradition proceedings only if it is absolutely clear and incontrovertible as to the innocence of the person concerned, failing which it would amount to undue interference in the judicial affairs of the requesting State.