Casa Alianza director acquitted in Guatemalan slander case

Published: 2004-02-02

LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- A Guatemalan court has acquitted the director of Casa Alianza, the Central American branch of New York-based Covenant House, of charges of defamation and slander. On Jan. 30 the court found director Bruce Harris innocent in the case, which stemmed from a 1997 press conference in which Harris accused 19 people of running an irregular, if not illegal, adoption scheme. Susana Luarca Saracho de Umana, a lawyer who at the time of Harris' statement was married to the president of the Guatemalan Supreme Court, sued Harris after she was named as being involved in the adoptions scheme. Umana asked the court for an eight-year prison term, the equivalent of $125,000 in damages and Harris' deportation. "It was quite a privilege to be able to defend such a noble cause as freedom of expression," said Harris, a British citizen who has been director of Casa Alianza since 1989. In a telephone interview, Harris said he believed illegal adoptions and suppression of freedom of expression will continue in Guatemala despite his acquittal. He also said he was not against international adoptions.

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