Sports journalist Antonio Ismael Pintos will file a complaint in the coming days, accompanied by his attorney, against the current president of CONMEBOL, Alejandro Domínguez, for violating his human rights by denying him the payment of the severance pay he was awarded in the first and second instances of his lawsuit. This was reported to futbolmundial.com by our South American correspondent, Daniel Héctor Chacón.
According to our correspondent’s report, the complaint alleges that the ruling in the journalist’s favor was strikingly overturned through the intervention of former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes, thereby nullifying a judgment that had already become final in two courts.
According to Chacón, the complaint will be filed with the Court in the coming days, and futbolmundial.com will have access to the text once it is formally filed.
The case has a long history in the Paraguayan courts. Pintos, a Uruguayan cameraman and journalist who worked for CONMEBOL for nearly two decades, filed a labor lawsuit against the confederation and won a favorable judgment for an amount close to $10 million, as reported at the time by the South American press. According to a 2018 report by the newspaper Olé, the ruling included back pay accumulated over years of unrecognized employment, and CONMEBOL appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Justice of Paraguay.
Based on information from media coverage at the time, the case reached the highest levels of government: it even prompted a meeting between Alejandro Domínguez and then-Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes, during which they discussed “legal certainty” for the confederation, according to reports in regional media.
The new complaint being prepared by Pintos, according to our correspondent, is directed specifically at Domínguez for his refusal to pay the compensation, which—in the opinion of the complainant and his legal team—constitutes a violation of his human rights after he had obtained favorable rulings in two courts.
Alejandro Domínguez has presided over CONMEBOL since 2016 and has been one of the most prominent figures in South American soccer over the past decade. If the complaint is filed as described by our correspondent, it would open a new legal chapter in a dispute that has been ongoing for years between the journalist and the confederation.
Futbolmundial.com will update this article as soon as it gains access to the complaint filed with the Court.
