Journalist Ernesto Cabral faces criminal investigation by Peruvian authorities
The Committee to Protect Journalists says the Peruvian authorities should immediately end their criminal investigation of journalist Ernesto Cabral and allow him to work without harassment.
A Lima-based news website reported on November 9 that prosecutors were seeking an order to compel Cabral to reveal his sources. According to the same report, the Peruvian attorney general's office opened a preliminary investigation into the journalist after he reported on a corruption scandal involving former Peruvian president Ollanta Humala and his former adviser Martin Belaunde, a businessman.
The attorney general’s office began investigating Cabral in June 2021 but did not notify him until last month, according to the Institute for Press and Society (IPYS), a Lima-based free-speech group. If convicted, Cabral faces four to six years in prison.