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A Guatemalan criminal judge on Friday granted ” house arrest ” to journalist José Rubén Zamora and he will be able to leave prison after spending more than 800 days in a jail in the capital of the Central American country, in a process full of irregularities.
Zamora Marroquín’s request for house arrest was accepted by criminal judge Erik García, who considered that “for humanitarian reasons” he should grant the measure to the journalist.
The judge said that the journalist’s ” preventive detention period allowed by law” had been exceeded. He therefore placed him under house arrest with a ban on leaving the country and his passport will remain in judicial custody.
#Urgente 🚨 Sin caución económica
El periodista Jose Rubén Zamora podrá salir de prisión sin pago de fianza.
Estarán con arresto domiciliario, arraigo y deberá firmar en el MP periódicamente.
🎥 Regina Pérez pic.twitter.com/be3DVBOrpt
— Prensa Comunitaria Km169 (@PrensaComunitar) October 19, 2024
Case against Jose Ruben Zamora
Zamora Marroquín was arrested on July 29, 2022, accused of money laundering by the Guatemalan Prosecutor’s Office, just five days after launching accusations of corruption against the then president, Alejandro Giammattei.
The journalist, founder and president of the investigative media outlet El Periódico , had disclosed investigations into corruption and bribery involving Giammattei prior to his capture.
In a small room in the Guatemalan judicial body , packed with dozens of journalists and human rights defenders, the sentence against Zamora Marroquín was read out after 40 days of oral and public debate.
The Guatemalan journalist was not allowed to present the exonerating documents that he submitted for his defense, nor were the witnesses that his defense offered for the debate allowed to participate.
Zamora also denounced that four of the lawyers who defended him during the trial were accused and prosecuted by the Prosecutor’s Office and two others had to go into exile due to threats.
