Guatemala court opens door to freeing jailed journalist [View all]

May 15, 2024 7:50 PM
By Agence France-Presse



FILE - Newspaper founder and editor Jose Ruben Zamora leaves in handcuffs after a court hearing in Guatemala City, June 14, 2023. A court on May 15, 2024, granted him a conditional release from jail.

GUATEMALA CITY —
A Guatemalan court on Wednesday granted a prominent journalist and corruption critic a conditional release in a case of alleged graft, though he must clear another legal hurdle before being freed from prison. Jose Ruben Zamora has rejected money-laundering accusations against him as retaliation for his newspaper's reporting on alleged government corruption under former right-wing President Alejandro Giammattei.

A criminal court granted the 67-year-old home detention while awaiting a retrial on those charges, its president, Veronica Ruiz, announced. The three judges decided there was no danger of Zamora fleeing or obstructing the investigation and criminal proceedings against him. However, he will not be freed from the military barracks in Guatemala City until a separate obstruction-of-justice case against him is resolved.

Zamora told journalists after the ruling that he was waiting for a hearing date in that case, which he said he believed would be "dismissed and I can go home." In October 2023, an appeals court overturned a six-year prison sentence for Zamora — founder of the now-shuttered El Periodico — and ordered a new trial. A date has not yet been set.

Press freedom and rights groups have denounced his prosecution as a "witch hunt." On Tuesday, Colombia's prestigious Gabo Foundation named Zamora the winner of its annual journalism award for his "tenacious and courageous professional work."

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