(20 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Guatemala City, Guatemala – 19 October 2024
++DUSK AND NIGHT TIME++
1. Various of José Rubén Zamora leaving prison in car
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) José Rubén Zamora, founder of El Periodico newspaper:
“I feel very happy with the support from local colleagues, surprised, moved. I have cried from the messages I have heard from outside, from the rest of the world as well. I think that if I had been alone here, I would have died and nobody would have noticed. But 812 days and nobody forgot. It makes me feel happy.”
3. Zamora speaks with journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) José Rubén Zamora, founder of El Periodico newspaper,
“I think they are going to lock me up again, I want them to be sure, maybe they have been bluffing, maybe it is true. If they are going to bring me back, I am going to wait for them at my house again and I am going to come back here. I think that kind of action is killing them, not me. I have the spirit, the courage and the faith to continue, they are going to finish first. If I have to come I will come, if I stay at liberty I have to find a way to respond to my obligations.”
5. Various of Zamora hugging friends and leaving in car after being released
STORYLINE:
A Guatemalan journalist on Saturday celebrated his transfer to house arrest after spending more than two years in preventive detention amid his newspaper’s anti-corruption investigations.
José Rubén Zamora was released after a judge on Friday ruled he should be freed because his preventative arrest in one of the cases had already expired.
The 68-year-old had been behind bars since July 2022, when he was charged with money laundering, amounting to around $38,000, and in June 2023 he was sentenced to six years in prison.
That sentence was overturned by an appeals court because of errors in the process, but he’s still waiting to see if he will be granted a retrial.
Zamora told reporters after his release that he was grateful and happy for the outpouring of support he had received whilst in jail.
He had previously said that he was exposed to psychological torture during his imprisonment, spending long hours without daylight, isolation and being awakened several times a night by guards.
The journalist founded the daily El Periódico in 1996 and the paper specialized in anti-corruption before closing a year ago.
Eight journalists and columnists from El Periódico have left the country since Guatemala’s prosecutor’s office started investigating them.
Members of Zamora’s family also left the country for fear of being criminalized along with him.
A United Nations working group had called the journalist’s detention arbitrary, and several press freedom organizations also spoke out in support of his release.
AP video by Santiago Billy
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