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Alert

Police advisors take newspaper director and editor to court for revealing their identities

(CERIGUA/IFEX) - On 16 March 2007, the morning newspaper "elPeriódico" published an editorial reporting that brothers Henry Danilo Benítez Barrios and José Luis Benítez Barrios, former unpaid advisors to the National Police (Policía Nacional Civil, PNC), had filed a complaint against the newspaper's director, José Rubén Zamora, and its editor-in-chief, Ana Carolina Alpírez. The brothers are holding Zamora and Alpírez responsible for an alleged attempt on their lives which took place on 8 March, the same day on which the newspaper made public a report that had identified the Benítez brothers as the two hooded men who had participated in a September 2006 police operation in the Pavón prison, during which extrajudicial executions were committed.

The information published by the newspaper indicated that the Benítez brothers entered Pavón prison wearing police uniforms, which enabled them to function as if they were real police officers although they did not have the legal authority to do so; they were very heavily armed, and had equipment that genuine Guatemalan police lack.

The two former advisors claim they were the target of an armed attack on the night of March 8, the same day that the news from the report appeared in the newspaper. National Police Director Erwin Sperisen then complained about the dissemination of the information from the report, and claimed that the news had provoked the attack on the Benítez brothers.

It its editorial, "elPeriódico" called for an independent and credible investigation, including an expert assessment of the vehicle in which the Benítez brothers were travelling at the time of the alleged attempt on their lives, in order to determine the facts regarding this suspect incident.

Human Rights Procurator (Procurador de los Derechos Humanos) Sergio Morales Alvarado has expressed concern about the Benítezes' legal action and has said that the "elPeriódico" 8 March article had not constituted an invitation to murder, but had "simply made known information which was later confirmed by government authorities."

Ileana Alamilla, director of CERIGUA's Observatory for Journalists (Observatorio de los Periodistas), has expressed her concern about the persecution of "elPeriódico"; in her opinion, it is intended to cast as criminals those exercising the profession of journalism, and to silence and intimidate other media outlets and information workers. Alamilla, a member of the Guatemalan Journalists' Association's press freedom commission, also noted that various journalists have recently received telephoned or e-mailed threats warning them to stop publishing anything about the murder of three Salvadoran politicians and their chauffeur on 19 February, and shortly thereafter, the murder in a high security prison of the four former police officers accused of the politicians' murders (see IFEX alerts of 9 and 6 March 2007).

Both the veiled threat made by National Police Director Sperisen and the announcement that Zamora and Alpírez will be taken to court constitute open censorship which cannot be tolerated, in CERIGUA's opinion.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Send appeals to the director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights' Office in Guatemala and to the Guatemalan authorities:
- asking them to investigate this new incident, which constitutes an attack on press freedom

APPEALS TO:

Frank La Rue
Comisionado Presidencial de los Derechos Humanos
[Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights]
Segunda avenida 10-50, zona 9
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Fax: +502 2334 0119
E-mail: frank_larue@copredeh.gob.gt

Sergio Morales Alvarado
Procurador de los Derechos Humanos
[Human Rights Procurador]
Decimosegunda avenida 12-72, zona 1
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Fax: +502 2424 1717
E-mail: ososa@pdh.org.gt

Mario Castañeda
Fiscal Especial de Delitos contra Periodistas y Sindicalistas
[Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Journalists and Trade Unionists]
Ministerio Público
Séptima avenida 11-20 zona 1, segundo nivel
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Fax: +502 2220 6873
E-mail: mcastaneda@mp.lex.gob.gt

Anders Kompas
Oficina del Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas Sobre Derechos Humanos para Guatemala
[Director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights' Office in Guatemala]
Decimotercera calle 3-40, zona 10,
Edificio Atlantis, oficina 803
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Fax: +502 2382 3410
E-mail: anayansi.lopez@undp.org

Carlos Vielmann
Ministro de Gobernación
[Minister of Governance]
Sexta Avenida 4-64, zona 1
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Fax: +502 2362 0237 / 2339 4474
E-mail: ministro@mingob.gob.gt

Erwin Sperisen
Director de la Policía Nacional Civil
[National Police Director]
Dirección General de la Policía Nacional Civil
Sexta Avenida 13-71, zona 1
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Fax: +502 2238 1474

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.