Ex-dictator faces genocide retrial in Guatemala
Ex-dictator faces genocide retrial in Guatemala
By AFP 4 hours ago .
A Guatemalan court on Wednesday began a closed-door retrial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during his 1982-1983 rule.
Rios Montt, now 89, was being tried in absentia with only the family members of victims on hand.
Rios Montt's attorney says his client has been diagnosed with dementia.
Prosecutors hope to reassert a conviction against the ex-general delivered in a May 2013 trial but which was overturned within days by Guatemala's constitutional court, which ordered the new trial. In the discarded verdict he was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Rios Montt is accused of being responsible for the murders of 1,771 indigenous Ixil-Maya people during his rule at the height of Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996.
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