An award-winning journalist imprisoned in Guatemala for nearly two years was granted a conditional release on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
José Rubén Zamora, 67, was first arrested on charges of possible money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling in July 2022. After a year in detention while he waited for his case to play out, he was convicted on the money laundering charge by a three-judge panel, which sentenced him to six years in prison and fined him $40,000. (He was cleared of blackmail and influence peddling.)
A prominent critic of Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, Zamora is best-known as the founder and publisher of the elPeriódico newspaper, which regularly investigated graft and corruption within Giammattei’s government. ElPeriódico shuttered the year after Zamora’s arrest.
