Jailed Guatemalan journalist to AP: 'I can defend myself, because I am innocent'

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — José Rubén Zamora has spent nearly two years locked in a dark 16- by 13-foot cell in a Guatemalan prison, allowed only one hour a day in the sunlight.

The journalist’s money laundering conviction was tossed out, and last week a judge finally ordered his conditional release to await a new trial. But the 67-year-old founder of the newspaper El Periodico never made it out. Two more cases against him include detention orders.

In a jail house interview Tuesday, Zamora told The Associated Press that he had heard he would be arrested in July 2022 a week before agents came for him. But, he said, “it never crossed my mind to flee. I have to face justice because I can defend myself, because I am innocent.”

International press freedom organizations have labeled Zamora’s arrest and detention a political prosecution. Zamora concurs. He contends his legal problems were engineered by former President Alejandro Giammattei, who appeared many times in the pages of El Periodico accused of corruption.