The Guatemalan justice system sentenced the founder and director of the newspaper elPeriódico, José Rubén Zamora, to 6 years in prison this Wednesday, after being found guilty of the crime of money laundering, local media reported.
The judicial process, which organizations that defend press freedom classify as a politically motivated case, ended this afternoon. Zamora was acquitted of other crimes charged against him such as blackmail and influence peddling.
In addition to the prison sentence, Zamora must pay a fine of 300,000 quetzales (about $38,000), according to the court ruling.
Zamora pleaded not guilty to the charges for which he was prosecuted and said that there should be a club of democratic countries “where Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba cannot be.”
The trial against the director of elPeriódico, which recently stopped operating, concluded this Wednesday amid accusations from the international community about an alleged control to which Guatemalan justice would be subject in the current government of President Alejandro Giammattei.
“The authorities [de Guatemala] They have done everything possible to make it clear that the investigation against José Zamora is a persecution,” Juan Pappier, acting deputy director of Human Rights Watch, wrote on his Twitter account. Twitter.
“Let no one be confused. The objective is not to investigate a financial transaction, it is to discipline journalism and private sector actors that support the press. The objective is silence and impunity,” he added.
a great trajectory
Zamora, 66, has been honored with awards such as Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot Award, the International Press Freedom Award and the International Press Institute’s World Press Freedom Hero Award.
His son, the journalist José Zamora, told the voice of america in a recent interview that he had little hope that his father would be released and acquitted of the charges brought against him by the authorities.
“If something works, he should be acquitted and released, but the truth is that there is very little hope. The system is fully co-opted and what is expected on June 14, which is the last hearing, is that they condemn it,” José Zamora told the VOA during an interview in Costa Rica.
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