A criminal court in Honduras acquitted the main suspect in the killing of journalist David Meza Montesinos, who was shot to death in March 11 2010, reported Proceso.
Marco Joel Álvarez Barahona, alias “The Unicorn,” was accused of killing the reporter, who worked for the local radio station El Patio and was a correspondent for the national station Radio América in the Caribbean city of La Ceiba.
The journalist had received death threats after reporting on drug trafficking in the Atlantic region of the country, according to Reporters Without Borders.
Álvarez was arrested for killing the journalist in September 2010 and was the second suspect accused in the crime to be let off. The other suspect, businessman Mario Roberto Guevara, was freed for lack of evidence, reported La Tribuna.
Reporters Without Borders questioned, when the prosecutor claimed to have evidence against Álvarez, whether his arrest was a "hasty attempt to pin this murder on suspects at random," or whether the acquittal was because there was "danger of embarrassing revelations by the suspects...These hypotheses cannot be ruled out, given the continuing impunity in the 16 murders of journalists since the start of last year."
