human rights defender
Virginia Laparra
Actions and Campaigns
Organization affiliation
- Fiscalía Especial contra la Impunidad (FECI)
HRD's Gender
Woman
Type of HRD
- Lawyer
HRD's thematic area of engagement
- Fight against corruption
- Fight against impunity
HRD's geographical origin
Urban
Current Status
Released on bail
HRD's bio and work
(AI translated) Virginia Laparra is a lawyer and former prosecutor at the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Impunity (FECI) of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) in Quetzaltenango. In this role, she was responsible for combating corruption.
Detained since
Feb 23, 2022
Date of release
Jan 3, 2024
Charge(s)
- Other
Sentence
(AI translated) She was sentenced to four years in prison for the crime of Abuse of Authority.
Latitude: 14.642269939245883
Longitude: -90.51311731338502
Geolocation of detention
Country or area of detention
Region of detention
- Americas: Latin America and the Caribbean
Location of detention - City/Town
Ciudad de Guatemala
Recent case update / evolution
(AI translated) She was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for the offence of abuse of authority. She is also facing proceedings in a second case for the offence of disclosure of information.
She was declared in default on 5 June 2025 in the proceedings relating to the disclosure of information, at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In April 2025, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested that she also be declared in default in the proceedings for the offence of abuse of authority; this request was rejected on 5 September 2025, whereupon, on 16 September, the Public Prosecutor’s Office lodged an appeal for constitutional protection with the Constitutional Court against the chamber that had rejected the request to declare her in default.
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