The Committee to Protect Journalist and 18 other civil society organizations called on Guatemalan authorities to respect the independence of the judiciary at an October 18 hearing over the release of Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora from pre-trial detention.
The statement highlights a “deeply troubling trend” of criminalizing and intimidating human rights defenders, including Judge Rodolfo Traheta Córdova, who has been threatened ahead of Friday’s hearing.
Zamora, 67, founder of the now defunct elPeriódico newspaper, was arrested more than 800 days ago and has been waiting for a retrial after his conviction on money laundering charges was overturned in October 2023. Legal experts have said that Zamora’s rights to a fair trial have been violated in what is widely seen as a politically motivated case of arbitrary detention.
Read the full statement here.