CPJ, partners call for journalist José Rubén Zamora’s release after 800 days of arbitrary detention

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined eight other press freedom organizations in calling for the release of Guatemalan journalist José Ruben Zamora, who has spent 800 days in detention since his July 29, 2002 arrest on charges of money laundering charges—which international organizations describe as arbitrary and politically motivated.

The statement urged the Guatemalan government, especially President Bernardo Arévalo, to end Zamora’s legal prosecution and the harassment of his family and the journalistic community. 

Zamora, founder of the now-defunct elPeriódico newspaper, was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2023. The Guatemalan Court of Appeals overturned the ruling in October, ordering a retrial scheduled for 2025. International bodies, including the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), have denounced Zamora’s imprisonment, citing it as a politically motivated attack on his freedom of expression.

Read the full statement here.