Guatemalan court orders release of journalist Rubén Zamora

CGuatemala City. A Guatemalan court on Monday ordered the release for the second time of José Rubén Zamora, a journalist renowned for his investigations into corruption who has been imprisoned for more than two years without a sentence on charges brought by prosecutors for alleged money laundering.

On May 15, the court had ordered an alternative measure to imprisonment so that Zamora could wait out two judicial proceedings against him by the prosecution. However, the prosecution appealed and an appeals court reversed that decision and ruled that, before granting the measure in favor of the journalist, a review should be made of whether the conditions that justified preventive imprisonment at the time had changed.

Zamora, 67, has been recognized nationally and internationally for his investigative journalism exposing corruption in the Guatemalan state.

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On Monday, the court upheld its initial ruling, saying there was no risk of flight or of Zamora obstructing the investigation. Despite the ruling, the journalist must remain in prison as he has a second case pending against him.

The journalist has been in prison since July 2022 when he was accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of money laundering. The prosecution accuses him of having tried to bank 38 thousand dollars and questioned the origin of the money, but according to Zamora’s defense, that amount was donated by a person to pay off the commitments of the newspaper El Periódico.

Zamora, who was founder and director of the now-defunct outlet, has denied the accusations.

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In June last year, he was sentenced to six years in prison, but the conviction was overturned due to due process failures.

One of his most relevant publications was the case of the so-called “Magic Carpet”, which revealed alleged bribes paid to former President Alejandro Giammattei in exchange for favoring Russian businessmen for their operations in a port in Guatemala.

Giammattei denied the accusations and the prosecutor’s office never investigated the former president. Instead, it accused Zamora and other Guatemalan journalists.

During Giammattei’s government (2020-2024), several journalists, judicial officials and opponents went into exile after reporting persecution for their fight against corruption.