The Guatemalan press held its breath on Wednesday, June 14, as Judge Oly Gonzalez began reading the sentence against journalist José Ruben Zamora, accused of money laundering, blackmail and influence peddling. Two hours later, the verdict fell: sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering, the former boss of the newspaper El Periodico was acquitted of the charges of blackmail and influence peddling.
Admittedly, the most prestigious Guatemalan journalist avoided the forty years in prison required by the prosecution. Above all, a former prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity (FECI), Samari Gomez, who was alongside the 66-year-old journalist in the dock, was released at the end of the day, after eleven months behind bars. . The court considered that the prosecution had failed to demonstrate that she had revealed confidential information to José Ruben Zamora.
On Wednesday, Mr. Zamora’s colleagues were unanimous in recalling the importance of the release of Mr.me Gomez like to denounce the seriousness of the condemnation of the journalist: “First, José Ruben Zamora remains in prison. Then the prosecution succeeded in destroying the newspaper El Periodico, which of course was their goal. Finally, they did send, with this masquerade of justice, a message of intimidation to all the media in the country”reacts Francisco Rodriguez, who worked seven years with José Ruben Zamora and now heads the independent media Plaza Publica. The newspaper El Periodicofounded in 1996 by Mr. Zamora and which had already been published only on the Internet since December 2022, was forced to cease all activity on May 15, citing the “criminal persecution and economic pressure” performed on it.
Serious abuse against his defense
This trial, “the most expeditious in the history of Guatemala”, as his eldest son, José Carlos Zamora, calls it, has had a strong impact on the profession, which has already been shaken by multiple attacks on press freedom in recent years. During his eleven hearings, the journalist, renowned for his investigations into corruption, was portrayed as a ” master singer “ which abused its dominant position. According to prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso, the investigative journalism ofEl Periodico was not, in fact, “just a front to launder money. Those who did not accept to finance the newspaper saw their reputation destroyed in its pages”.
The journalist’s former colleagues watched helplessly as a series of serious abuses were made against his defense throughout the trial. “Four of his lawyers have been charged, two of whom are now imprisoned. Two others abandoned him after being threatened, testifies the journalist Claudia Mendez, who worked for fifteen years for El Periodico. I saw during a hearing a new lawyer being appointed when he had in no way studied the file or spoken to his client. » Eight former journalists from the disappeared media will also be tried for the articles they wrote on the trial of their boss. Unsurprisingly, the prosecution appealed the sentence, deemed far too weak by Rafael Curruchiche, the head of the special prosecution against impunity.
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