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Guatemalan ex-prosecutor sentenced in 'politically motivated' case
Guatemalan ex-prosecutor sentenced in 'politically motivated' case
A Guatemalan court on Monday sentenced a former anti-corruption prosecutor to five years in prison, or a fine, in a case slammed by the US, UN and Amnesty International.
Virginia Laparra, 44, was found guilty of disclosing confidential information, months after she was released on house arrest following two years of detention in another case widely denounced as stitched up.
Laparra is one of multiple former prosecutors who had investigated corruption cases in Guatemala to have been arrested on the watch of Attorney General Consuelo Porras.
Porras was sanctioned in 2021 by the United States, which has placed her on a list of "corrupt" and "undemocratic" actors.
Washington accuses the attorney general's office of "undermining" democracy over attempts to delegitimize the election last year of President Bernardo Arevalo, who pulled off an upset win on an anti-graft platform.
On Monday, a court in Quetzaltenango where Laparra had headed a regional office of the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity sentenced her to five years' imprisonment and a fine of $6,400.
Judge Moises de Leon ruled Laparra can remain under house arrest, instead of going to prison, if she pays 64 US cents for every day of her sentence a total of $1,168.
Laparra was also disqualified from holding public office for 10 years.
After the sentence, Laparra insisted she had "no regrets" over her actions despite having been "imprisoned for two years for filing administrative complaints."
Laparra was sentenced in December 2022 to four years in prison after being convicted of abuse of authority in another widely criticized trial.
Last December, Guatemala's supreme court ordered her release on house arrest after she had already served almost half her jail term, including pre-sentencing detention.
Amnesty International, which describes her as a "prisoner of conscience," said Laparra's sentencing Monday was "yet another example of the politically-motivated persecution... of those who have fought against corruption" in Guatemala.
And US State Department assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, Brian Nichols, said on X the sentencing was the latest in a series of "egregious attacks" on the rule of law.
"We urge Guatemala judicial authorities to stop using the criminal justice system to target human rights & justice defenders," he wrote.
For its part, the UN Human Rights Office in Guatemala said on X that Laparra's sentencing raised "concern about the lack of guarantees for justice operators to fulfil their role without intimidation, reprisals and attacks."
Guatemala scored 23 on a 2023 Transparency International scale of perceived public sector corruption, with 100 being the cleanest.
Arevalo, in office since January, has proposed legal reforms that would allow him to get rid of Porras, who was appointed by his predecessor to a mandate that runs until May 2026.
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