UK journalist Sally Bowen and her co-author Jane Holligan, have been charged with libel in Peru after a businessman Fernando Zevallos filed a case against them. The Peru based organisation Foreign Press Association (APEP) has condemned the decision of judge Alfredo Catacora as an “ill-fated precedent for the right to freedom of information” and described the decision as a “threat to freedom of expression”.

According to judge Catacora, the journalists committed libel against Zevallos when they reproduced a statement made by Oscar Benitez Linares, describing Zevallos as a ‘drug trafficker’, in their recently published book “The Imperfect Spy”.

Sally Bowen has been ordered to pay civil reparation of £1,600 and must follow certain ‘rules of conduct’ for the next year.

According to the judge, even though Zevallos has been accused of illegal drug trafficking and the airline he owns, Aero Continente, put on a US government blacklist of companies with suspected links to drug traffickers, he can not be named a ‘drug trafficker’ until he has been sentenced for trafficking drugs.