Court overturns sentence for Guatemala newspaper founder

AFP :
A Guatemalan appeals court on Friday overturned a six-year prison sentence handed down in June to the founder of one of the country’s top newspapers, though his legal ordeal is not yet over.

Jose Ruben Zamora Marroquin, founder of El Periodico, which was often critical of the government, had been found guilty of money laundering in a trial denounced by press freedom groups. But while it overturned his prison sentence, the court also ordered a new trial date to be fixed.

The prosecution had originally sought 40 years in prison for 67-year-old Zamora — whose newspaper shut down in May after nearly three decades in operation — for a string of charges including money laundering, influence peddling and racketeering.