On April 6th, Bernabé Gualná Caal, a farmer, indigenous Q'eqchi, a member of the Sachaj Cooperative Community and a defender of labour rights, was arbitrarily detained by the PNC in the municipality of Raxruhá, department of Alta Verapaz, and later transferred to the Cobán prison following a complaint filed by the palm oil company Industria Chiquibul SA, where the human rights defender worked until the end of 2019. The first hearing in this case was held on April 15th, during which he was issued a pretrial detention order for the alleged crimes of "illegal detention", "coercion", "trespassing" and "aggravated trespassing." The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint program between the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH, and UDEFEGUA stress that these events “took place within a context of persecution of human rights defenders in Guatemala, where we have observed patterns of misuse of the criminal law, particularly directed against members of rural movements and defenders of indigenous and campesino rights. Also, both organizations have reminded the authorities that the misuse of crimes such as the "aggravated trespassing" against defenders of labour rights and human rights in general, not only criminalizes them, but also seriously stigmatizes their legitimate work in defense of human rights." The hearing in the case's intermediate stage will take place on July 30th, 2020. Until then, Mr. Gualná Caal will remain in detention in Cobán's prison.