Belizean kidnapper gets 25 years in Guatemalan jail; more charges pending

Joseph Budna

There is word tonight from Guatemala that thirty-three year old Joseph Budna has been sentenced to twenty-five years in a Guatemalan prison after being found guilty of kidnapping.  The former freelance reporter, who apparently became the leader of a regional kidnapping and extortion ring, was condemned in the Department of Chiquimula, following a case in which he was charged for abduction.  The protracted sentence, we are told, is incommutable.  There are other cases against Budna in the departments of Peten, Zacapa and Jalapa that are being closely monitored by the Belize Embassy in Guatemala City.  Budna was reportedly involved in the kidnapping of nineteen year old Luis Byron Reyes Onofre, who claims that he was taken hostage by three other men who held him for a million dollar ransom.  In court, Budna argued that Onofre was part of an extortion scheme in which his father was being coerced into paying the hefty sum.