"Reporters Without Borders (RSF, for its French acronym) expresses its deepest concern following the detention in Spain of Salvadoran photojournalist Diego Andrés Rosa Rosales. […] On Jan. 2, the photojournalist […] was detained in Seville, in the south of the country, while he was processing his asylum application to the Spanish State [due to] the activation of an Interpol Red Notice […] issued at the request of Salvadoran authorities. The following day, a judge […] ordered the provisional release of the 25-year-old reporter, pending a possible extradition request from El Salvador […].
Feeling threatened, harassed and under surveillance, [Rosa Rosales] left El Salvador in September. However, just a few weeks after, the photojournalist, his brother —who lives in Argentina— and his mother —who lives in Bolivia— received a court summons accusing them of alleged crimes of ‘theft by electronic means’ and ‘illicit association,’ criminal charges widely used under the state of emergency in effect in El Salvador since March 2022.
‘The Public Prosecutor’s Office of El Salvador, controlled by the executive branch, has initiated an unfounded process against me and members of my family, with serious violations of the right to a fair trial and a clear lack of evidence to support the accusations, as has occurred in other widely documented cases in the country,’ Rosa Rosales told RSF."
