Guillermo Zuloaga, owner and president of the Globovision television channel, was conditionally released again after he was arrested late Thursday for allegedly insulting Presidnet Hugo Chavez, according to dpa, He was detained at the airport in northern Venezuela and was brought to the capital Caracas for questioning. Zuloaga was ordered released by a court but on condition that he could not leave the country after prosecutors had said he would be charged with insulting Chavez and with distribution of false information. Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz said Zuloaga he faced up to 15 months in jail for the first charge and 3-5 years in prison for the second. Zuloaga called his detention an "arbitrary act" and said he was not trying to flee the country but instead was travelling to Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles, for Easter. "I have not received any notification that I have any problems, except what has been on the news, that there is supposedly an investigation of my comments at the (meeting,)" Zuloaga said of the media gathering. "(Zuloaga) can stay calm ... because we act in accordance with the law," Ortega Diaz said. "We act with regard for human rights." The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington expressed deep concern over Zuloaga's arrest, which it said "evidences the lack of independence of the judiciary and the utilization of the criminal justice system to punish criticism, producing an intimidating effect that extends to all of society."
