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

By SONIA PÉREZ D.
Associated Press

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — José Rubén Zamora has spent nearly two years locked in a dark 16- by 13-foot cell in Guatemala, 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 founder of the newspaper El Periodico never made it out. Two more cases against him include detention orders. In a jailhouse interview, Zamora said he had heard he would be arrested in July 2022 a week before agents came for him. But, he says: “It never crossed my mind to flee. I have to face justice because I can defend myself, because I am innocent.”