The conviction and subsequent sentencing of the mastermind behind the murder of Paraguayan journalist Samuel Román is being seen as an out and out victory of justice in the battle for violent conspiracies against journalists in the country.
After deliberating for more than 12 hours, a jury found Eurico Mariano, former mayor of the city of Coronel Sapucaia, Brazil, guilty of having arranged Román's murder. Mariano was sentenced on August 10 to 17 years and nine months in jail, according to the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).
Román, a radio reporter for radio stations Ñu Verá and Conquista FM in Capitán Bado on the Paraguayan border with Brazil, was attacked on April 20, 2004 by two men on a motorcycle who shot him 11 times as he was heading to his home in Coronel Sapucaia, on the Brazilian side of the border.
He hosted the programme "The Voice of the People", in which he invited listeners to comment on political life in the region. The 450-mile-long Paraguay-Brazil border is known as a hotbed of corruption, smuggling and organised crime.
“This conviction and sentence is a positive step in the battle against the violence unleashed against journalists in the border regions, and especially so because it is the punishment of a mastermind, something quite unusual in cases of the murder of journalists,” said Gonzalo Marroquín, chairman of the IAPA’s Commitee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
According to local press reports, nine persons have been charged in connection with Roman’s murder, the majority of them Paraguayan citizens. Mariano, the only one to be brought to trial, arranged the killing to silence the journalist making accusations about him, according to the public prosecutor handling the case, Ricardo Rotunno.
IAPA in its recently-published book Map of Risks for Journalists – part of the organisation’s Anti-Impunity Project, funded by the John S and James L Knight Foundation – identifies the Brazil-Paraguay and United States-Mexico border regions, along with Colombia where there are areas controlled by guerillas and paramilitaries, as the most dangerous places in the Americas for reporters.
