The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) joined the family’s claim Guatemalan journalist, Jose Ruben Zamorato demand his release after serving two years in prison.
Zamora faced a judicial process indicated as irregular by human rights observers in the Central American country, where he was charged with money laundering and sentenced to six years in prison.
SIP President Roberto Rock said in a release The regional organization urges the Guatemalan authorities to “immediately release the journalist,” who is considered a prisoner of conscience.
His imprisonment is a “reprisal for his reporting work,” according to the SIP, pursued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, headed by the prosecutor Consuelo Porras, sanctioned by the US and the European Unionas did some judges in the country.
For his part, the son of journalist Zamora, José Carlos Zamora, who together with the regional director of Reporters Without Borders for Latin America, Artur Romeu, visited him in prison after completing two years of imprisonment, announced the demands.
Zamora Jr. demanded that the Guatemalan State grant his father conditional release so that he can face parole the legal proceedings against him.
“We are asking that we reach an amicable agreement, [bajo el sistema interamericano de Derechos Humanos] what he [presidente Bernardo Arévalo] has the power to approve and with that the legal team will do what is necessary for him [Zamora] “May he be free,” said the journalist’s son, who described his father’s continued imprisonment as “an outrage, an abuse and an attack on democracy.”
After the visit to the prison, José Carlos Zamora would hold a meeting with the Guatemalan president to deliver a letter denouncing the injustices and failures to due process in the journalist’s case.
The family, who had to leave the country for fear of reprisals and being criminalized by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, is asking that international legal standards be applied to the Zamora case.
From Reporters Without Borders
For the regional director of Reporters Without Borders, Artur Romeu, the persecution and imprisonment of José Rubén Zamora “has become a symbol and monument of the fight for press freedom in the world,” and they join the calls to demand his release.
International organizations and the family agree that the Guatemalan judicial system, and especially the judges who are hearing the two cases in which the prosecution accuses Zamora of money laundering and document forgery, are maintaining the action as “revenge” against the journalist.
“It is very clear that this comes from the corrupt pact [como le llaman a un grupo de particulares coludidos con fiscales, jueces y políticos que ejercen corrupción y se asociaron para tener impunidad] and what became their main tool to persecute critical voices: the Public Ministry,” said Zamora Jr.
Earlier this month a United Nations (UN) working group said that the The journalist’s detention is arbitrary and they consider Zamora’s arrest to be “spurious” and have joined the voices calling for his release.
“We hope this ends soon. It is terrible to see that the State is controlled by a criminal cell in the Public Prosecutor’s Office and judges who are dedicated to issuing illegal and unconstitutional resolutions,” emphasized José Carlos Zamora.
The IAPA has reiterated that during his imprisonment, Zamora has been subjected to “flagrant rape and psychological and physical torture,” as he himself recounted to a mission from the regional organization that visited him in prison.
An international team of lawyers representing Zamora’s family also urged the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to take urgent measures to protect him and secure his freedom.
The journalist – an emblem of the fight for freedom of expression in Guatemala – served as president of the now defunct El Periódico, from where he denounced acts of alleged corruption during successive governments in Guatemala, but it was during Alejandro Giammattei’s administration that the persecution began.
The Giammattei administration (2020 – 2024) also darkened the country’s sociopolitical landscape by to pursue more than 100 justice operators including judges and prosecutors, lawyers, human rights defenders, political opponents and journalists, many of whom have been exiled for having denounced or investigated acts of corruption and crimes against humanity.
[Con aportes de The Associated Press]
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