Miami (July 29, 2024) - To commemorate the two years of the unjust imprisonment of journalist José Rubén Zamora, founder and president of the now-defunct newspaper elPeriódico, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) renews its call to Guatemalan judicial authorities to end the persecution against him and order his immediate release.
Zamora, 67, has been detained in the Mariscal Zavala military prison since July 29, 2022, in retaliation for his work. He was sentenced in June 2023 to six years in prison for alleged money laundering, in a trial marked by serious irregularities.
Roberto Rock, president of the IAPA and director of the Mexican portal La Silla Rota, condemned the prolonged arrest of Zamora and stated that "he must be released immediately because there is nothing to justify his continued imprisonment." Rock indicated that Zamora "has been a victim of persecution and has suffered due process violations and cruel treatment during his imprisonment."
The president of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, editor of the Argentine newspaper La Voz del Interior, added that "the imprisonment of Zamora is a sad example of the misuse of justice to criminalize journalists and media in retaliation for their work." He added that "unfortunately, this is a problem that the IAPA has documented and denounced in recent years in several countries in the region."
In a meeting with international delegations from the IAPA and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) last January, the president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, described the Zamora case as "emblematic" in terms of the judicial persecution of critical journalists by officials of Alejandro Giammattei's administration.
During his imprisonment, Zamora has been subjected to flagrant violations and torture of a psychological and physical nature, as recounted by the journalist himself to the IAPA. Recently, an international team of lawyers, representing Zamora's family, urged the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to take urgent measures to protect and ensure the journalist's release.
In addition to repeated calls for Zamora's release, the IAPA filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice to "expeditiously resolve the request for substitute measures to stop the continuous violation of due process and the right to personal liberty" of Zamora. It considers that "keeping him in pretrial detention, within a spurious process in which all fundamental rights have also been violated, is unreasonable. Not addressing the request for review is an abstention from the duty to administer justice."
Although on May 15 a Guatemalan court granted Zamora conditional release in one of the cases against him, the measure was annulled on June 12 by the Second Chamber of the Court of Appeals. Zamora's defense filed an appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice.
Due to political and economic pressures, elPeriódico ceased operations on May 15, 2023. Zamora has been awarded the María Moors Cabot Prize; the CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 1995; the International Journalism Prize and the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize for Impact in 2023, and the Gabo Prize for Excellence in 2024. The International Press Institute named him one of the '50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the 20th Century' in 2000.
IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.
