Journalists Sentenced For Criticizing Leader

The publisher and a reporter of the tabloid newspaper La Republica have been sentenced to two years in jail for accusing Paraguay’s president of corruption.

Judge Zulma Casanova handed down the sentence late Thursday, saying publisher Federico Fasano and his journalist brother, Carlos, had “attacked the honor” of a foreign head of state.

Paraguayan President Juan Carlos Wasmosy sued the daily in March after it published stories claiming Wasmosy had received millions of dollars in kickbacks from the construction of the Itaipu hydroelectric dam.

Wasmosy had previously been cleared of similar charges by a Paraguayan court.