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Freelance Belizean journalist Joseph Budna was able to secure his release last week, 2 days before the New Year, with the condition he returned to Guatemala for formal sentencing. Guatemalan Judge Soria Solero Castenada Toledo, in a telephone conversation with Seven News said Gonguez' no-show today was in-consequential.

Judge Soria Toledo
"This is something that the court took into consideration if Mr. Gonguez would be able to appear to receive the official sentencing in person, because actually the judicial process has actually been finalized and we took into account the distance involved for the defendant to appear and also the gravity of the crime in this country, and so because there was another person willing to appear, we acted on that fact.""

Budna who appeared in court on Gonguez' behalf today, and who chided the Belize Foreign Ministry for their inaction, says he did not have to put up any collateral for the release of Gonguez. He says the Guatemalan court was kind enough to release Gonguez and not hold him to his appearance today after taking into account his economic circumstances.

Joseph Budna
"He had absolutely nothing to do with laws in Guatemala because he is a free man as he was before because the judicial organismo in Guatemala had already granted him the forgiveness so once the forgiveness is granted then there is nothing else he should say in Guatemala and the Judge has made that clear to me today that he had no authority to answer to when he comes to this specific place. As far as I know he has no other case in Guatemala."

Judge Castenada says Gonguez had accepted full responsibility for the possession of the illegal substance and after serving the prescribed time allotted by Guatemalan law, along with a fine, he is now absolved from the charges initiated in the Guatemalan judicial system.