Gregorio Ríos, sentenced to life in prison in 2000 after being convicted of instigating the 1997 murder of Argentine photographer José Luis Cabezas, was released on parole today. In response, we issued the following statement…
“We are dismayed that the convicted mastermind of the murder of our colleague José Luis Cabezas is free to walk the streets after serving only eight years of a life sentence,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s Senior Program Coordinator for the Americas. “Of the eight people convicted in the photographer’s slaying, only two remain in jail. This record undermines the quest for justice in Argentina and is a setback in the fight against impunity for the killers of journalists around the world.”
Cabezas, a photographer for the newsweekly magazine Noticias, was brutally murdered on January 25, 1997, in the city of Pinamar, Buenos Aires Province. Cabezas had photographed reclusive business tycoon Alfredo Yabrán, thought to be the head of Argentina’s mafia. Ríos was Yabrán’s chief of security.