A judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Lima, Peru, declared the legal case against investigative journalist Daniel Yovera Soto closed, according to legal documents published by the newspaper La República on Aug. 25. Yovera Soto was accused of aggravated defamation by Carlos Alberto Abelardo Gómez de la Torre Pretell, representative of the San Juan Bautista Civil Association.
The accusation against Yovera Soto followed the publication of an investigation linking the association to the religious group Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana and alleged illegal land trafficking in the city of Piura.
The lawsuit was based on publications made between December 2016 and December 2018. According to the ruling, more than four and a half years had already passed since the last event mentioned in the lawsuit, thus exceeding the maximum time allowed to pursue the accusation. For this reason, the judge decided that the case should be closed and archived, which put an end to the criminal action against the journalist.
