Guatemalan appeals chamber overturns conviction of journalist José Rubén Zamora and orders retrial

José Rubén Zamora before the Tower of Courts of Guatemala City, last June. Esteban Biba (EFE)

A Guatemalan appeals chamber decided on Thursday to annul the conviction handed down in June against journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín and ordered a repeat of the judicial process that last June sentenced him to six years in prison for an alleged crime of money laundering. The court's decision against the founder of elPeriódico took place, before the presidential elections, in a context of persecution of informants and judicial operators investigating corruption. This onslaught, according to several organizations dedicated to the defense of human rights and the defendants themselves, is encouraged by the ruling party and, ultimately, by the outgoing president, Alejandro Giammattei.

The son of Zamora Marroquín, Ramón Zamora, confirmed on Friday the revocation of the sentence. "We are hopeful that we will now be able to have a fair trial where his right to defense is respected," the journalist's son said. The Public Ministry, led by Attorney General María Consuelo Porras, had requested a sentence of 40 years in prison in a process considered by Zamora as a political persecution against him. The journalist's relatives appealed the conviction and expressed their intention to exhaust all judicial avenues in Guatemala before resorting to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).

The veteran journalist, who has always denied the charges and pleaded not guilty, was charged with money laundering, blackmail and influence peddling. The case started from a complaint by former banker Ronald Giovanni García Navarijo. The accusation referred to an alleged attempt by Zamora to force him to launder 300,000 quetzales, about $38,000. The founder of elPeriódico admitted the existence of that sum of money, but defended its legality and assured that its origin was the sale of a painting to finance the media outlet he founded in 1996 and that in May he was forced to announce the closure of operation before the harassment of the Government.

The weariness of society in the face of corruption and the authoritarian drift of the Executive is precisely the spigot of the protests, blockades and strikes that for almost two weeks have paralyzed the Central American country. The central demand of the protesters is the resignation of Attorney General Porras, close to Giammattei and included by the United States in the Engel List of the State Department "due to her participation in significant acts of corruption." In August, the Seed Movement, a progressive formation that advocates a profound democratic regeneration, won the elections, and the president-elect, Bernardo Arévalo, has denounced on multiple occasions the so-called "pact of corrupt" to torpedo his inauguration next January.

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