Guatemalan man convicted in killing of lawyer whose pre-slaying video set off uproar

Man convicted in killing of Guatemalan lawyer

GUATEMALA CITY — A Guatemalan judge sentenced a man to two years in prison Monday for his role in the killing of a prominent lawyer who accused the country’s president of his murder in a video made before his death.

Carlos Arago Cardona was convicted of illicit association, the first verdict among eight people on trial in the slaying of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg last May.

Public protests erupted after the death and the release of Rosenberg’s video implicating the president if he were to be killed.

But a United Nations investigation sanctioned by the government found that Rosenberg arranged his own slaying by contracting the hitmen who killed him. Investigators said Rosenberg may have been motivated by personal problems.

Judge Veronica Galicia said she refused defense requests to suspend the sentence for Arago Cardona, who turned state’s evidence and informed on his alleged accomplices.

The prosecution based its case in part on recorded telephone calls tying the suspects to the killing of Rosenberg, who was shot to death while riding his bicycle.

In a video distributed after his death, Rosenberg is seen saying, “If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Alvaro Colom.”

Rosenberg, a 47-year-old corporate lawyer who served as assistant dean at a private university, claimed Colom’s administration was linked to a corruption scandal at a government bank and said any attack on him would be an attempt to cover that up.

The president denied any involvement, and his government has suggested that criminal or political interests were behind the video.