The reporters without borders (RSF) and Amnesty International (AI) condemned that the journalist Jose Rubén Zamora Marroquín has been imprisoned again, after a court complied with the resolution of the Third Chamber of Appeals, which annulled the house arrest with which he had benefited.
Zamora, 68, is accused of an alleged case of money laundering and blackmail, in a process that international organizations and several governments consider an attack against the press by the previous government.
After the ruling of Judge Erick García, agents of the Penitentiary System (SP) handcuffed Zamora and, immediately, he was transferred to the Mariscal Zavala barracks, in Guatemala City, where he had already been imprisoned for more than 800 days.
Upon hearing the ruling, the journalist, who wore a blue suit and white shirt, insisted on his innocence and reiterated that he will continue to face “the mafia state, the criminal mafias that manipulate to his whim and arbitrarily justice.”
“Return to prison. I think I am not the only criminalized, ”said Zamora, who described as” arbitrary “the resolution against him by the Appeals Room.
The Oenegé Reporteros Without Borders (RSF) called to the Guatemalan judicial system to “respect the right to a fair trial and stop abusing legal mechanisms to gag journalists.”
“The international community must continue to press Guatemala to guarantee press freedom and the rule of law,” said RSF in a statement.
Amnesty International (AI), on the other hand, condemned the ruling because, “clearly”, is arbitrary and responds to “his journalistic work of research and denunciation of corruption.”
“His detention is a abuse more in the long list of human rights violations. We demand its immediate release and the lifting of all the charges against him, ”said Ana Piquer, director for AI’s Americas.
“We reject the revocation of the house arrest of the journalist Jose Rubén Zamora. The arbitrary decision of the court constitutes a serious example of political persecution and attack on freedom of expression in Guatemala, ”said the Inter -American Press Society (SIP).