Guatemala ex-dictator forced to appear at genocide trial

[Judi Lynn]

Guatemala ex-dictator forced to appear at genocide trial
By AFP 1 hour ago.

Guatemala's former dictator Efrain Rios Montt was hauled to court on a stretcher Monday to attend his retrial on genocide charges after the judge rejected his request for sick leave.

Judge Jeannette Valdez ordered police to fetch the 88-year-old former ruler, who is accused of ordering the army to massacre 1,771 Ixil Maya Indians during Guatemala's brutal civil war.

Rios Montt, who ruled Guatemala with an iron fist in the early 1980s, was sentenced in 2013 to 80 years in prison for genocide and war crimes, but the country's Constitutional Court threw out the conviction on procedural grounds and ordered a retrial.

After Valdez rejected his request to be tried in absentia, saying medical documents did not indicate his health problems were high-risk, Rios Montt was brought into court on a stretcher with his face covered.

More:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/guatemala-ex-dictator-forced-to-appear-at-genocide-trial/article/422673

(Efrain Rios-Montt has been supported throughout his reign by the U.S. American right-wing, Ronald Reagan, and the U.S. televangelists.)

[Eugene]

1. Genocide retrial of Guatemala ex-dictator Rios Montt suspended

Source: Reuters

Genocide retrial of Guatemala ex-dictator Rios Montt suspended

BY SOFIA MENCHU
GUATEMALA CITY Mon Jan 5, 2015 7:25pm EST

(Reuters) - Guatemala's Supreme Court on Monday began a retrial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt for genocide, but in a fresh twist to a bizarre legal saga suspended it as the defense sought the removal of one of the judges hearing the case.

Rios Montt's opponents accuse him of implementing a scorched earth policy in the bloodiest phase of the country's 36-year civil war. The 88-year-old was found guilty in May 2013 of overseeing the killings by the armed forces of at least 1,771 members of the Maya Ixil population during his 1982-83 rule.

However, his 80-year jail sentence was thrown out less than two weeks later by the country's Constitutional Court on a legal technicality after persistent efforts by Rios Montt's defense team to derail the trial with complex appeals.

Rios Montt's defense lawyers argue one of the three judges hearing the new trial is biased.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/06/us-guatemala-trial-idUSKBN0KF00K20150106

[Judi Lynn]

2. Postponement of former Guatemalan dictator's genocide retrial causes dismay

Postponement of former Guatemalan dictator's genocide retrial causes dismay

• José Efraín Ríos Montt, 88, was originally convicted on same charges in 2013
  
• Trial delayed because judge wrote master’s thesis on genocide

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The former dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt arrives in court on a stretcher for a new trial against him on charges of
genocide and crimes against humanity in Guatemala City on Monday. Photograph: Esteban Biba/EPA
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The former Guatemalan dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt’s retrial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity has been postponed, dismaying victims who have long sought to see him punished for the massacre of thousands of Mayan Indians during his 1982-83 regime.

Clad in pyjamas and covered in a blanket, the 88-year-old Ríos Montt was wheeled into a courtroom on a gurney after the tribunal threw out a defence argument that the 88-year-old was too frail to attend.

Judge Jeannette Valdez initially turned down a motion that she recuse herself because she wrote a master’s thesis on genocide, calling it “a strategy to obstruct” the proceedings. But the two other judges who make up the panel accepted the motion, causing the trial’s onset to be postponed.

“Genocidal killer! Justice is what we want, coward!” human rights activists and victims shouted after learning of the decision.

More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/05/postponement-guatemalan-dictators-genocide-retrial-dismay