A Guatemalan court on Monday sentenced a former anti-corruption prosecutor to five years in prison or a fine in a case condemned by the United States, the United Nations and Amnesty International.
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Virginia LaPala, 44, was convicted of leaking classified information months after being released on house arrest after spending two years in prison in a separate case that was widely condemned as fabricated.
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Lapala is one of several former prosecutors investigating corruption in Guatemala who have been arrested under the watch of Attorney General Consuelo Porras.
Porath was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 and placed on a list of “corrupt” and “undemocratic” actors.
Washington has accused the attorney general’s office of “undermining” democracy by trying to delegitimize last year’s election, which President Bernardo Arevalo won in a major upset on an anti-corruption platform.
On Monday, a court in Quetzaltenango, where Laparra headed the regional office of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity, sentenced her to five years in prison and a $6,400 fine.
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Judge Moises de Leon ruled that Laparra could remain under house arrest instead of going to prison if he paid 64 cents for each day he served his sentence, totaling $1,168.
Lapala was also banned from holding public office for 10 years.
Following the verdict, Laparra maintained he had “no regrets” for his actions, despite having been “incarcerated for two years for filing an administrative complaint.”
Lapala was convicted of abuse of power in a separate, widely criticized trial and sentenced to four years in prison in December 2022.
Guatemala’s Supreme Court ordered his release under house arrest in December after he had served nearly half his sentence, including pre-trial detention.
Amnesty International called Laparra a “prisoner of conscience” and said Monday’s sentence was “yet another example of the politically motivated persecution of those who have fought corruption in Guatemala.”
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And in an interview with Xinhua, US Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols said the ruling was the latest in a series of “nasty attacks” on the rule of law.
“We call on Guatemalan judicial authorities to stop using the criminal justice system to target defenders of human rights and justice,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Guatemala said in a statement that Lapara’s sentence raised “concerns that there is no guarantee that law enforcement officials will be able to carry out their duties without intimidation, reprisals or attacks.”
Guatemala received a score of 23 on Transparency International’s 2023 Public Sector Corruption Perceptions Scale, with 100 being the cleanest.
Arevalo, who has been president since January, has proposed legal changes that would allow him to dismiss Porras, who was appointed by his predecessor to serve a term until May 2026.
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