The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes Thursday’s court ruling granting house arrest to investigative journalist Jose Rubén Zamora, president of the now defunct elPeriódico, and calls on Guatemalan authorities to immediately drop all charges and end his years-long judicial persecution.
“While we are relieved that Jose Rubén Zamora can finally leave prison behind, it is a travesty of justice that he has been deprived of his freedom for over three years,” said CPJ Chief Programs Officer Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “The repeated judicial maneuvers to keep Zamora behind bars sends a chilling message to every investigative reporter in Guatemala. Authorities must now take the final step: drop all remaining charges and end this judicial harassment once and for all.”
Zamora, 69, was ordered to be moved from prison to house arrest as a substitute measure while he awaits trial on money laundering charges — allegations that international observers and press freedom advocates have widely denounced as politically motivated retaliation for his reporting on government corruption. In May 2024, a court granted Zamora’s release, but he was forced to return to prison March 10, 2025, after an appeals court annulled the order.
“I feel at peace. I have spent more time in prison than I should have and endured torture and psychological repression,” Zamora told CPJ upon news of his release. “I was a living dead man, but it was worth it. My arbitrary detention exposed corruption and the use of the justice system to silence critical voices more than my thirty years at elPeriódico. Today, the world’s eyes are on Guatemala.”
In May 2024, a court granted Zamora’s release, but he was forced to return to prison March 10, 2025, after an appeals court annulled the order.
Zamora was first sentenced to six years in prison on money laundering charges in June 2023 by a criminal court in Guatemala City. Although an appeals court overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial, the process has been stalled by repeated delays, keeping him in detention since his July 2022 arrest.
The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has condemned Zamora’s imprisonment as a violation of international law. Additionally, a report by TrialWatch, a legal injustice watchdog, found significant breaches of fair-trial standards, concluding that Zamora’s prosecution is likely a retaliatory strike against his investigative journalism.