"An appeals court in Guatemala ruled on Thursday [Oct. 12] to overturn the sentence dictated in June against journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín and ordered a retrial. Last June, Zamora was sentenced to six years in prison for an alleged crime of money laundering. The court's decision against the founder of elPeriódico newspaper came before the presidential elections, in a context of persecution of reporters and judicial officers who investigate corruption. [...]
'We are hopeful that now he will be able to have a fair trial where his right to a defense will be respected,' said Zamora's son. The Public Prosecutor's Office, led by Attorney General María Consuelo Porras, had asked for a 40-year prison sentence in a trial considered by Zamora as political persecution against him. The journalist's relatives appealed the conviction and voiced their intention to exhaust all legal remedies in Guatemala before appealing to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR)."
