Digital evidence and the Paraguayan criminal process

Abstract

Digital evidence in criminal procedure is a reality impossible to avoid. Approaching from constitutional guarantees, reviewing them from international conventions and trying to understand their scope in Paraguayan criminal legislation, is a double set of understandings that requires recognition of the international and national instruments involved. In turn, they are embodied in the National Cyber security and Cybercrime Plan adopted or projected by Paraguay, which was joined by the creation of the Cybercrime Department in the National Police and the Specialized Unit for Cybercrimes of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. It aims to address national cyber security strategies and the redesign of state structures that combat these cybercrimes. The research was based on a descriptive qualitative approach, with non-experimental design and the data was collected by documentary analysis. It is concluded that the legal center of all digital evidence is given with the ratification of the Budapest Convention, which defines the traffic data, establishes the mechanisms for its collection and preservation, on the other hand, the casuistry is presented to the expected adoption to the second additional protocol to the Budapest Convention, which will mean the extraterritoriality of the collection of traffic data. It is highlighted that the Paraguayan criminal procedure has these tools, which must be used by the operators of justice in compliance with the constitutional guarantees and freedoms, and therefore, the development of jurisprudence is of crucial importance.