On Wednesday, Jose Zamora, a journalist in Guatemala, was sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering.

The 66-year-old journalist was acquitted of charges of blackmail and influence peddling.

Mr Zamora, the founder and publisher of an investigative outlet El Periódico in Guatemala, described the charges against him as “political prosecution,” claiming to be innocent of those charges.

The presiding judge, Oly González, sentenced him to six years’ imprisonment or an option to pay a $38,300 fine.

The journalist maintained that the case against him was political persecution by President Alejandro Giammattei because of reporting on alleged corruption involving the president and his close allies in El Periodico, which the government later shut down in May.

The journalist was arrested in July 2022 during a crackdown on prosecutors, judges, human rights activists, journalists and opposition officials.

The attorney general’s office claimed Mr Zamora allegedly received $38,461 to finance his media outlet, which was not regularly deposited into the banking system.

The case developed rapidly and involved 11 hearings, but the judge did not admit the defendant’s evidence.

The journalist’s son, José Carlos Zamora, told local media in Guatemala that his father is innocent of the charges adding that they will appeal the court’s judgement.

Juanita Goebertus, the director of the Human Rights Watch Americas division, said, “To ask for a sentence of 40 years is absolutely disproportionate and shows the viciousness with which journalism is being persecuted in Guatemala.”

The programme director of CPJ in New York, Carlos Martinez de la Serna, said the conviction of Mr Zamora was an infringement of press freedom in the country and the “desperate attempts of President Alejandro Giammattei’s government to criminalise journalism.”

“Guatemalan officials must end the absurd charade of criminal proceedings against him. It is time for José Rubén Zamora to be released, for his only ‘crime’ has been the fearless exercise of his profession,” he added.