The below is a translation of Spanish Press Release written by Mauricio Weibel Barahona.
In what press freedom organisations are calling an unprecedented ruling, a court has convicted a judge and a general for spying on a journalist.
The final, unappealable sentence was handed down after six years of judicial investigation, during which three Chilean Defence Ministers defended the conduct of those convicted before Congress.
Chilean Justice on 30 June sentenced the former president of the Copiapó Court of Appeals, Juan Poblete, and the former director of the Army Intelligence Directorate, retired General Shafik Nazal, to five years in prison. Both men, acting from their official positions, designed and carried out an illegal espionage operation against investigative journalist Mauricio Weibel Barahona while he was investigating massive corruption cases in the military linked to his country’s weapons procurement processes.
“This unprecedented judgment represents a landmark for the defence of freedom of expression. It sends a clear signal that there can be no impunity for those who attack journalists, especially those of us who investigate corruption and matters of public interest,” Weibel said following the judgment.
The verdict was reached in an expedited proceeding before the Seventh Criminal Court of Guarantees in Santiago, after the defendants acknowledged their guilt and the facts of the indictment. Each had spent more than two years in pretrial detention since the investigation began in 2020.
Weibel’s attorneys, Karinna Fernández and Cristián Cruz, welcomed both the sentence and the body of international legislation and case law on the matter.
Fernández argued that spying on a journalist constitutes an attack on every person’s right to access accurate and timely information of public interest. “When a journalist’s phone is tapped during an investigation, democracy itself is tapped,” she said.
She also emphasiszed that the crimes committed constitute serious human rights violations, which were acknowledged at the conclusion of the proceedings by the convicted state agents who were themselves duty-bound to uphold those rights.
Cruz added that “this ruling affirms what the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression has repeatedly stressed: that media workers who investigate corruption or misconduct must not be targeted with judicial harassment or any other form of intimidation as retaliation for their work in the public interest.”
In an amicus curiae brief submitted to the court, Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression program underscored that “this case fits within a troubling regional and international context for freedom of expression,” one in which practices such as the illegitimate use of surveillance technologies to monitor journalists’ work, intercept their communications, or gather private information are increasingly observed.
“This trend,” the brief continued, “has been recognized by international human rights protection bodies, which have raised alarms about the arbitrary and unlawful use of mechanisms such as communications interception and personal data collection, practices that constitute serious violations of the rights to privacy and freedom of expression.”
The surveillance operation against Weibel was carried out in 2017, when he was investigating widespread corruption in Chile’s armed forces, a fact established by prosecutors and later admitted by the convicted men in their confessions.
To carry out the illegal interception, Judge Poblete and General Nazal issued a fraudulent wiretap order listing the journalist’s phone number but entering the name of an undocumented Bolivian immigrant, whom they falsely accused of being a foreign agent.
The operation was uncovered two years later when an intelligence official anonymously disclosed it to a newspaper. Once the facts came to light, three Defence Ministers, Alberto Espina, Baldo Prokurica, and Mario Desbordes, defended the action before Congress.
“In these circumstances, this ruling is of the utmost importance. It makes clear that journalism must be defended and that there can be no impunity for those who attack it, not even a judge or a general,” said Rocío Alorda, president of the Chilean Journalists’ Association.
Alorda added that the case represents a paradigmatic example that lays bare the structural risks facing investigative journalism in Latin America, and demands analysis through the lens of international human rights standards on freedom of expression and the protection of privacy against state interference.
Weibel concluded by expressing his gratitude for the support extended throughout the investigation by organisations including Media Defence, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression program, and the Chilean Journalists’ Association, among others.
Media Defence has been supporting Weibel since 2024 through our Emergency Defence programme.
