© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Journalist José Ruben Zamora Marroquín, founder and president of El Predico newspaper, speaks with the media as he attends a hearing in Guatemala City, Guatemala December 8, 2022. REUTERS/Josue Decavele/File Photo
By Sophia Minchu
GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – A Guatemalan court on Wednesday sentenced Jose Zamora, a well-known journalist who has criticized his work for successive governments, to six years in prison for money laundering in a case that rights groups have described as an attack on freedom of expression.
Zamora said the case against him is “political persecution” by Guatemalan President Alejandro Giamatti over the publication of reports of corruption allegations involving the president and his close allies in Zamora’s newspaper, ElPeriodico, which was closed down in May.
The court said Zamora was also issued a fine of 300,000 quetzals ($38,339). He was acquitted of racketeering and influence peddling charges.
Zamora, 66, said he would appeal and possibly refer the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
“I am glad that (the sentence) was arbitrary in the end,” he told reporters, smiling and appearing calm, after the hearing. “I am still innocent, and he is still a thief,” he said of Giamatti. “Nobody in history would take that away from him.”
Brian Nichols, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the US State Department, said on Twitter that the ruling is a threat to independent journalism and freedom of expression.
“The world will watch that his personal safety and health are protected,” Nichols said.
Zamora founded ElPeriodico, one of the country’s leading investigative media outlets, in 1996.
He was arrested in July last year during a crackdown on prosecutors, judges, human rights activists, journalists and opposition officials, led by the country’s Office of the Special Prosecutor Against Impunity (FECI).
FECI’s assistant public prosecutor, Samari Gomez, who was arrested last year in connection with Zamora for her alleged role in disclosing classified information, was acquitted on Wednesday and is set to be released later in the day.
According to the attorney general’s office, Zamora allegedly received $38,461 to fund his media outlet, which was not regularly deposited into the banking system.
The case developed rapidly and included 11 hearings in which the accused’s evidence was not admitted, and eight changes of defense attorneys, some of whom now face their own legal proceedings to get involved in Zamora’s defense.
Carlos Martinez de la Serna, program director for the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said the conviction showed the government’s “desperate attempts” to criminalize journalists and called for Zamora’s release.
“His only crime was the daring exercise of his profession,” he said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch’s director for the Americas, Juanita Jubertos, said the prosecution’s calls for a 40-year prison sentence show the “viciousness” of Guatemala’s persecution of the press, adding that the rights group was “extremely concerned” by the investigations of El Periodico journalists who covered the Zamora case.
($1 = 7.8250 quetzals)