House of Esteban Celada raided and vandalized
Guatemala
On 22 April 2020, the house of human rights lawyer Esteban Celada from Guatemala was raided and vandalized by unknown individuals whilst the lawyer was at work. This is the third raid on his home in less than five months. This was reported by Front Line Defenders.
Esteban Emanuel Celada Flores is a human rights lawyer and member of the Grupo de Litigantes contra la Tortura en América Latina (Group of Litigators against Torture in Latin America), an initiative led by lawyers from ten Latin American countries, working to combat the systematic use of torture in the region. Mr. Celada provides legal representation in many sensitive cases across the country, concerning crimes against humanity, organised crime, sexual violence and femicide.
On the morning of Wednesday 22 April 2020, Mr. Celada arrived home to find that unknown individuals had forced entry through the front door of his home and had raided and vandalized his apartment, painting hate signs on the walls and causing permanent damage to his private property.
This attack is part of a string of harassments against Celada. The human rights lawyer has filed at least six complaints for multiple attacks he received since 2016. Those complaints includes raids on his home and digital attacks, including surveillance, phishing and alerts on attempts to intrude his accounts.