Guatemala Newspaper Founder Sentenced To Six Years In Jail

A Guatemalan court on Wednesday sentenced the founder of a newspaper critical of the government to six years in prison on money-laundering charges, in a trial denounced by press freedom groups.

Judge Otto Valvert ruled that the sentence against Jose Ruben Zamora Marroquin cannot be commuted.

He also fined Zamora $37,500, the amount he is accused of having extorted from businessmen in exchange for not publishing damaging information about them in El Periodico, his newspaper shut down last month after nearly three decades in operation.

Both the prosecution, which had sought a jail term of 40 years, and Zamora said they would appeal.

Zamora, 66, denies the charges against him.

Prosecutors had sought a jail term of 40 years for Zamora, who on Wednesday accused the justice system of violating his rights and denounced President Alejandro Giammattei as "a thief."

Zamora has already been behind bars for nearly 11 months awaiting trial in a case media organizations say amounts to an attack on freedom of expression.

The trial is taking place amid a broader clampdown on government detractors in several spheres in the run up to presidential elections later this month.

He was arrested last July on charges of money laundering, blackmail and influence peddling, though found guilty only of the first accusation.

Arriving at court in handcuffs for sentencing, Zamora told reporters his wife Minayu Marroquin had left Guatemala on Tuesday for fear of being arrested herself, joining their exiled son in the United States.

Zamora says the money he is accused of extorting came from the sale of a work of art to finance the newspaper, dragged into financial straits by his arrest.

Zamora, who has won international awards for his paper's investigative journalism, accuses Giammattei and Attorney General Consuelo Porras of trying to silence him for bringing government corruption to light.

Human Rights Watch Americas head Juanita Goebertus, on a visit to Guatemala last week, said: "We have documented how they are about to extinguish the independent press in this country."

Michael Greenspon of the Inter American Press Association last week denounced a "witch hunt" against El Periodico.

The United States has also expressed concern, with State Department spokesman Ned Price stating in March: "Criminalizing the work of journalists and civil society undermines democratic norms and respect for freedom of expression."

Washington has added Porras to a list of "corrupt actors" for hampering and then firing an anti-mafia prosecutor.

Founded in 1996, El Periodico closed last month, citing "criminal persecution and economic pressure." Its journalists and columnists are also under investigation and several have fled Guatemala.

It is not just the media under fire in the Central American country.

A number of former anti-corruption prosecutors have been arrested along with members of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a UN-backed entity that helped unearth several graft scandals.

It was closed by the government in 2019.

Many former prosecutors are in exile today, claiming to be the victims of persecution and revenge for the work they did.

The United Nations in January voiced "deep concern" over what it called threats, harassment and reprisals faced by justice officials and human rights defenders in the Central American country.

Edmond Mulet, a leading candidate ahead of June 25 presidential elections, recently told AFP he believed Guatemala was "slowly sliding into an authoritarian model."

"I'm not saying dictatorship for now, but yes, authoritarian, in the model of Nicaragua, for example," he said.

Guatemala's courts have disqualified the three top contenders in the presidential race.