Genocide Trial of Ex-Guatemalan Dictator Put on Hold
An appeals court has suspended the trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt after the country's president intervened just hours before a criminal court was scheduled to reach a verdict.
An appeals court Thursday abruptly suspended the trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt after the country’s president intervened just hours before a criminal court was scheduled to reach a verdict.
Rios Montt is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.
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Ríos Montt on was charged in connection with the slaughter of more than 1,700 people in Guatemala’s Ixil region after he seized power in 1982. His 17-month rule is seen as one of the bloodiest chapters in Guatemala’s decades-long campaign against Maya indigenous people, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Thursday’s decision is seen as a major blow to indigenous victims. Investigative journalist Allan Nairn reported last night Guatemalan army associates had threatened the lives of case judges and prosecutors and that the case had been annulled after intervention by Guatemala’s president, General Otto Pérez Molina. Ríos Montt was the first head of state in the Americas to stand trial for genocide.
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