An Argentine journalist claimed he was threatened by a retired military officer who is being prosecuted for possible crimes against humanity, reported the newspaper Diario de Cuyo. Claudio Leiva, reporter from San Juan, Cuyo, said he was threatened in one of the court bathrooms when he ran into ex-military officer Gustavo Ramón De Marchi after his public hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 30.
The reporter said that another of the accused in the case asked him to leave the bathroom to speak with De Marchi, according to the newspaper La Prensa. There, De Marchi, after saying that he came from a family of honorable military officers, told him, "this isn't a threat but take note. You've got family and one day I'm getting out," the journalist told the newspaper.
Leiva covered the trial of six ex-military officiers in which De Marchi is accused of torture and abuse that ended in death in four cases, reported the website Diario Inédito. El Diario de Cuyo, the newspaper the threatened journalist works for, interpreted the threat as an attempt to pressure the publication of two letters that were presented to the court, added the website.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
