GUATEMALA CITY, March 11, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Guatemalan journalist and corruption crusader Jose Ruben Zamora returned to prison Monday after a judge ended his house arrest.

Zamora, declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, was arrested in July 2022 after his now-shuttered newspaper reported on graft allegations involving the government of then right-wing president Alejandro Giammattei.

Under house arrest since last October, Zamora is accused of money laundering and blackmail -- charges widely dismissed as trumped up.

In June 2023, Zamora was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison. That sentence was overturned and a new trial ordered, which the journalist, 68, was made to await in prison.

The government critic spent more than 800 days behind bars before he was granted house arrest, which was revoked Monday by Judge Erick Garcia, who ordered his return to prison "with immediate effect," upholding an appeals chamber ruling.

A panel of experts had reported to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that Zamora's previous imprisonment conditions were akin to "torture."

He had been held in a military penitentiary, where he was kept in solitary confinement in near total darkness for months on end. It is the same prison to which he was returned Monday straight from the courtroom, in handcuffs.

Giammattei has been accused by rights groups of overseeing a crackdown on anti-graft prosecutors and journalists during his term, which ended in January last year.

He was replaced by President Bernardo Arevalo, an underdog anti-corruption campaigner who overcame attempts by the political establishment to prevent him from assuming office.

Arevalo's office on Monday expressed concern about the "continued harassment" of Zamora, and called on the courts to pursue "transparent and impartial justice."

Giammattei still has allies in the Attorney General's office.

Zamora described Monday's ruling as "arbitrary" and vowed to continue "facing the mafia state, the criminal mafias that manipulate justice."

The Inter-American Press Society, an advocacy group, said the ruling was an "example of political persecution," while Reporters Without Borders urged Guatemala's authorities to respect Zamora's right to a fair trial.

Amnesty International called for his immediate and unconditional release.