Claudia González Orellana is a lawyer from Guatemala and the Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2023 laureate. She is a former representative of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CIGIC). As a lawyer, she represented nine of her former CIGIC-colleagues who were criminally prosecuted.
On 28 August 2023, Claudia was arrested and charged with ‘abuse of authority’ following a search of her home ordered by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Prior to her arrest, Claudia visited the prosecutor’s office several times to request information about possible proceedings against her but received no response. After nearly three months in detention, she was released and put under house arrest. Her trial, initially delayed for months, is now set to begin in January 2025. During this period of uncertainty, messages of solidarity would be of great support.
