After More Than 2 Years, Guatemalan Journalist Leaves Prison
Jody García and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega. New York Times. October 18, 2024
After spending more than 810 days in a cramped cell with little more than his books to keep him company, one of Guatemala’s most renowned journalists was released to house detention on Saturday night as he waits to find out whether he will be granted a new trial.
The decision came after a judge ruled Friday that José Rubén Zamora, the founder and publisher of elPeriódico, a leading newspaper in Guatemala that aggressively investigated government corruption, had spent too much time in prison without a trial and that he was not likely to flee.
“I have never wanted to flee Guatemala, which is also my country, not just the country of the authorities in power,” Mr. Zamora, 68, told the judge. “If you place your trust in me, I will honor it.”
Mr. Zamora was convicted last year of money laundering, sentenced to as many as six years in prison and fined about $40,000. He called the charges politically motivated and said they were retaliation for his newspaper’s focus on public corruption.
As part of his detention outside jail, he will be required to report periodically to the authorities and remain confined in his home.
His trial was plagued with irregularities and was broadly seen as fundamentally unfair — another move to undermine democracy and target critical press coverage during the administration of former President Alejandro Giammattei.
Months later, an appeals court overturned his conviction and sent the case back for a retrial. But prosecutors appealed that decision, and Mr. Zamora remained in pretrial detention. The appeals court is now weighing whether to grant him a new trial.
Although he was granted house arrest for his money laundering case in August, Mr. Zamora was kept in prison because he faced another pretrial detention order for a second case related to obstruction of justice and falsification of documents.
Friday’s ruling means that, for now, he’ll be able to confront those charges in freedom.
The Guatemalan government came under new leadership in January after Bernardo Arévalo, an anticorruption crusader, won a runoff election for president. The shift in power translated into slightly better conditions for Mr. Zamora.
The lights in his tiny cell were fixed. The glass on three small windows was replaced to keep out insects and prevent the cold from seeping in. He was given nail clippers and scissors.
And his family was allowed to take him an electronic tablet that he used to listen to music and watch some TV shows.
But while the new presidential administration is considered more progressive and supportive of democratic norms, Mr. Zamora’s case had until recently been overseen by prosecutors and judges allied with Mr. Giammattei.
Last week, a new slate of judges, including high court magistrates, was appointed. Some of them are considered to be independent.
Among those who have tried to keep Mr. Zamora behind bars are the country’s attorney general, María Consuelo Porras, the leader of the special prosecutor’s office against impunity, Rafael Curruchiche, and a far-right group, the Foundation Against Terrorism.
Both Ms. Porras and Mr. Curruchiche also used repeated legal challenges to try to block an orderly transition of power. They have been placed on a list of corrupt Central American officials by the United States, accused of graft and undermining democratic institutions.
Mr. Curruchiche’s office, which sought a 40-year prison sentence for Mr. Zamora, tried to suspend Friday’s hearing by not showing up. The Foundation Against Terrorism, or Fundaterror, which supports the attorney general, also claimed that the judge was not impartial.
“The pattern is always the same,” Mr. Zamora said in an interview. “Every time they assign me a judge, Fundaterror proceeds to file complaints against the judges. It says that I have bribed them, that I have made deals with them — judges that I have never seen and do not know.”
These tactics have allowed the public prosecutor’s office in Guatemala to obstruct hearings and keep journalists, anticorruption prosecutors and human rights activists in pretrial detention.
But they were not enough to stop Judge Erick García Alvarado from deciding on Friday that Mr. Zamora’s time in prison had exceeded the limits established by law and that his release was needed “for human rights reasons.”
Many across Guatemala applauded the ruling, including the country’s president. “Zamora returns home,” Mr. Arévalo said on social media. “Justice begins to arrive, the dark cycle will end.”
Still, despite Mr. Zamora’s expected release, “justice is far from achieved yet in this case,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director of the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York. “He shouldn’t have spent a single hour imprisoned.”
Mr. Zamora’s defense was hamstrung at various steps from the beginning.
He cycled through several defense lawyers, at least four of whom were accused of obstructing justice, prosecuted, detained and pressured into accepting the charges against them.
And a judge who handled the case earlier in the process did not allow Mr. Zamora to present any witnesses and rejected most of the evidence he tried to submit, deeming it irrelevant.
“There are strong grounds to conclude that the proceedings against Mr. Zamora were initiated in retaliation for his longstanding work to expose government corruption,” said a report by TrialWatch, a global initiative that monitors criminal trials worldwide.
“Should a retrial occur,” the report added, “it must strictly adhere to international standards, ensuring a different panel of judges who are demonstrably impartial and independent, free from any external pressures.”
