David Romero Ellner

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David Romero Ellner (died 18 July 2020) [1] was a Honduran journalist, lawyer and politician. He was a Liberal party congressman and formerly mayor of Tegucigalpa. [2] [3] He was director of Radio Globo and Globo TV. [4] He was known for his investigations into corruption in the country. [5]

He died on 18 July 2020, from COVID-19 that he contracted in prison during the COVID-19 pandemic in Honduras. [4] Earlier in 2020, CPJ and 190 other agencies urged world leaders to release all journalists imprisoned for their work due to the threat of incurring COVID-19 in prison. [6] [4]

Convictions

In 2002, Romero Ellner was charged with raping his daughter. [7] On 30 July 2002 he was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and office. [8] [9] In 2004, he pleaded guilty to raping his daughter and was sentenced to ten years in prison. [10] [11] He was released early, and the prosecutor who tried him has accused him of then embarking on a harassment campaign against her and her family, for which he was tried and found guilty on sixteen counts of libel and defamation in 2016. [11] In January 2019, the Honduras Supreme Court upheld a previous conviction of the journalist; he charged a public prosecutor with corruption in 2016. [4] On March 28, 2019, after exhausting all of his appeals, including the Supreme Court of Honduras and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, he was arrested by the National Honduran police in a raid on Radio Globo as he was on the air. [11]

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References

  1. "Muere el controvertido periodista hondureño, David Romero Ellner por COVID-19". Vanguardia (in Spanish). 18 July 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  2. "David Romero Ellner: Una vida de servicio social y controversia". 18 July 2020.
  3. Los hechos hablan por sí mismos: informe preliminar sobre los desaparecidos. Honduras. Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos. p. 39
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Hondurese journalist overleden na oplopen coronavirus in gevangenis / Villamedia". www.villamedia.nl.
  5. "David Romero Ellner: Una vida de servicio social y controversia". 18 July 2020.
  6. "Honduran journalist David Romero dies after contracting COVID-19 in jail". July 19, 2020.
  7. "2003 dejó tres diputados presos y otro prófugo". La Prensa. Archived from the original on 2024-05-24.
  8. "SEMANA DEL 30 AL 1 DE AGOSTO DEL 2002". El Centro de Investigación y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos. Archived from the original on 2009-10-24.
  9. "Honduras: Sentencian periodista a 10 años de prisión". Chicago Tribune. 15 March 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  10. Centro de Derecho de Mujeres (2006). "Fuerzas para seguir: Testimonio de un abuso sexual". Centro de Derechos de Mujeres. Retrieved 2019-03-30.
  11. 1 2 3 "Capturan al periodista hondureño David Romero". La Prensa (Honduras). 22 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-03-30.