(Spanish ) — The Guatemalan Public Ministry asked the judges of the Eighth Criminal Sentencing Court to sentence journalist José Rubén Zamora to 40 years in prison for the alleged crimes of money laundering (20 years), influence peddling (12 years) and blackmail (8 years old), in the ongoing trial against him.
For the last two crimes, the prosecution has requested double the maximum sentence because it considers that the aggravating circumstance of contempt for authority was constituted.
Prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso also asked the Court for Zamora to pay a fine equivalent to just over US$38,000.
The businessman and journalist has insisted on his innocence and that he has been a political prisoner since he was arrested in July 2022. During a break in the oral and public debate hearing, Zamora told reporters that “it made him laugh” that they asked for 40 years in one case, as his judgment was severely flawed and lacked evidence.
Zamora is accused of trying to introduce some US$38,000 into the financial system without justifying its origin. At the beginning of the process, the journalist said that it was money that businessmen had given him and that they were going to testify in the trial. But that didn’t happen. The journalist said at the time before the press that just as he protected his sources, he had to do it with those who supported him with resources.
Later, Zamora’s defense said that part of that money was from a sale of a work of art.
Zamora, 66, is a journalist critical of the current government in Guatemala. In 1996, he founded the newspaper El Periódico, which closed its operations on May 15.
Zamora has received several awards during his career, such as the recognition of Hero of Press Freedom, which he was given in 2000 by the International Press Institute.
On May 2, when the trial began, special prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche told that Zamora’s arrest “is not related to his journalistic activity.”
Also accused in the trial is Samari Gómez Díaz, a former assistant to the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), accused of revealing confidential or reserved information. The Public Ministry requested an 8-year prison sentence against Gómez.
The former prosecutor, who has also insisted on her innocence, told the local press that the accusation sought not only to affect Zamora’s journalistic work, but also the work carried out by the FECI, in addition to removing her from the cases and ongoing investigations. .
The FECI is the agency in charge of investigating high-impact cases in the country and was established in development of the Agreement for the creation of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), signed by the Secretary General of the United Nations and the government of Guatemala. in 2006.
