GUATEMALA: THE UNITED NATIONS RECOGNIZES THE ARBITRARY DETENTION OF ANTI-CORRUPTION PROSECUTOR STUARDO CAMPO AGUILAR AND CALLS FOR HIS IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has rendered its Opinion on the case of Mr. Stuardo Ernesto Campo Aguilar, finding his deprivation of liberty arbitrary and calling for his immediate release. The Opinion follows the petition submitted by the International League Against Arbitrary Detention (ILAAD), alongside the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA (GHRC). More than two years after his first arrest, Stuardo Campo Aguilar remains held in the Mariscal Zavala military detention centre in Guatemala City.

In its Opinion No. 20/2026, adopted on 27 March 2026, the Working Group brings the authority of the United Nations behind what ILAAD and GHRC have argued from the outset: that the prosecution of one of Guatemala's leading anti-corruption prosecutors is a reprisal for the exercise of his functions, and has no basis in law.

A PROSECUTOR PUNISHED FOR HIS WORK AGAINST CORRUPTION

Stuardo Campo Aguilar is a Guatemalan lawyer and notary, and a former prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor's Office. He headed the Internal Affairs Prosecutor's Office in 2015, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office in 2016, and served as Regional Prosecutor for the Metropolitan Region in 2017. Between January 2020 and April 2021, as head of the Special Prosecutor's Office against Impunity (FECI), he opened criminal investigations into acts of corruption reaching former ministers, members of Congress, mayors and senior officials.

That work took place in a country where, since the dismantling of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) in 2019, the justice operators who had cooperated with it have been systematically targeted. The Working Group records that at least twelve prosecutors of the FECI have been removed or transferred since 2021, at least four have fled the country for fear of reprisals, and eight have been arrested in criminal proceedings. The Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers has found that criminal law is being misused to criminalize acts carried out in the exercise of judicial functions, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has raised the same alarm.

TWO YEARS OF PRE-TRIAL DETENTION — AND AN ACQUITTAL THAT CHANGED NOTHING

Stuardo Campo Aguilar was first arrested on 26 May 2023, the day after his resignation, on charges of abuse of authority, breach of duty and denial of justice arising from a case he had investigated as a prosecutor — the so-called "Alfa Siete" case. On 1 December 2023, he was arrested a second time at his home, in a second set of proceedings connected to the "Zolic" case, and transferred to the Mariscal Zavala military detention centre, where he remains.

On 18 July 2025, a court acquitted him of breach of duty in the Alfa Siete case. He nevertheless remained in pre-trial detention on the same grounds in the second case, through a legal construction the Working Group examined with concern. By then he had spent more than two years in pre-trial detention, for a non-violent offence, without any individualized assessment of the necessity of that measure and without consideration of less restrictive alternatives.

Both proceedings were declared secret from the outset. The materials of the case were withheld from the defence, and the hearings were held behind closed doors, excluding the public and international observers alike.

AN ARBITRARY DETENTION UNDER CATEGORIES I, II, III AND V

The Working Group concludes that his detention is arbitrary on four counts: the transformation of pre-trial detention into an anticipated punishment, in breach of the presumption of innocence (category I); the criminalization of the legitimate exercise of his functions as an anti-corruption prosecutor, protected by the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs (category II); the denial of the right to prepare a defence, the violation of the principle of public hearings and the failure to be tried without undue delay (category III); and discrimination based on his status as a justice operator (category V).

The deprivation of liberty was found to be contrary to articles 2, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to articles 2, 9, 14, 25 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Working Group also recalls that civilians should not be held in military facilities or subjected to military jurisdiction, such practices undermining judicial guarantees and increasing the risk of arbitrary detention.

AN EXECUTIVE THAT CONCURS, A JUSTICE SYSTEM THAT WITHHOLDS

The Opinion is remarkable in one further respect. The Government of Guatemala replied to the Working Group within the deadline — and did not defend the detention. It described a marked tendency in the country to use pre-trial detention as an instrument for violating individual guarantees, and acknowledged that Guatemala is going through a critical moment as regards the criminalization of human rights defenders and justice operators. Drawing on the five patterns of instrumentalization of criminal law identified by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights — multiple complaints against a single person, anonymous or unfounded complaints used to harass, ambiguous criminal offences, abuse of pre-trial detention, and violations of due process including denial of access to the case file — it concluded that these systematic patterns are reflected in the criminal prosecution of Stuardo Campo Aguilar, and reiterated its position as to the arbitrariness of his detention. The Working Group notes that the Government's reply, far from contradicting the source, endorses it.

That convergence says a great deal about where power over this case actually lies. The Government also reported that it had been unable to obtain sufficient information from the institutions governing the justice system, the judiciary having restricted access on the ground that the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights (COPADEH) is not a party to proceedings held under seal. The same Commission carried out a monitoring visit to Mr. Campo Aguilar in the Mariscal Zavala detention centre, and accompanied the hearing of 26 January 2026 at which his lawyers sought a review of his pre-trial detention: that hearing was suspended, the eleventh suspension recorded in the file, and the matter was rescheduled for 26 February 2026.

During that visit, Mr. Campo Aguilar asked that his situation be understood in terms of the cumulative impact of the proceedings and measures taken against him, and as a message directed beyond his own person: the use of criminal prosecution and coercive measures as pressure tied to the professional profile of those who investigated and prosecuted corruption.

THE WORKING GROUP CALLS FOR RELEASE, REPARATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY

The Working Group requests that Guatemala remedy the situation without delay. In light of all the circumstances of the case, it considers that the appropriate remedy is the immediate release of Stuardo Campo Aguilar, together with an enforceable right to compensation and other forms of reparation, in accordance with international law. It further urges the authorities to conduct a full and independent investigation into the circumstances of his arbitrary deprivation of liberty and to take appropriate measures against those responsible, and has referred the case to the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. Guatemala is required to report back on implementation within six months.

This Opinion does not stand alone. ILAAD recalls that the Working Group has adopted several opinions in recent years concerning arbitrary detention in Guatemala — among them Opinions No. 85/2022, No. 24/2023 and No. 7/2024 — which point to a recurrent pattern of criminalization of the actors of the fight against corruption. The Working Group insists that the functions of prosecutors and judges deserve a high level of protection in a State governed by the rule of law, and that punishing them produces a chilling effect on the judiciary as a whole.

ILAAD: RELEASE STUARDO CAMPO AGUILAR AND DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST HIM

ILAAD urges the Guatemalan authorities to implement this Opinion without delay, to release Stuardo Campo Aguilar immediately and unconditionally, and to bring the criminal proceedings brought against him for the exercise of his functions to a complete end. The obligation falls on the State as a whole, but the responsibility is not evenly distributed: it now lies primarily with the judicial authorities and the Public Prosecutor's Office, which alone can order his release, lift the secrecy imposed on the case, and put an end to a prosecution that no organ of the State has been willing to defend before the United Nations. Alongside GHRC/USA, ILAAD will continue to follow this case until that outcome is secured.

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