Swiss-Guatemalan ex-police chief jailed for 15 years
Swiss-Guatemalan ex-police chief jailed for 15 years
The Local
news@thelocal.ch
@thelocalswitzer
28 April 2018
09:55 CEST+02:00
Guatemala's former police chief Erwin Sperisen was slapped with a 15-year prison sentence on Friday after being reconvicted for the deaths of seven inmates in his home country.
Sperisen, who holds dual Swiss and Guatemalan citizenship, had been sentenced to life by a Geneva court in 2014 over his role in the deaths of 10 prisoners.
. . .
He was however cleared in a separate case involving the alleged summary executions of three prisoners who had escaped from El Infiernito jail in 2005.
Sperisen resigned as Guatemala's police chief in 2007 and moved to Geneva, where his father Eduardo Sperisen-Yurt serves as Guatemala's ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
More:
https://www.thelocal.ch/20180428/swiss-guatemalan-ex-police-chief-gets-15-years-for
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Swiss step up hunt for war criminals
Source: nternational Service of the Swiss Broadcasting Cor
... They are homing in on two figures in particular: Khaled Nezzar, the former Algerian defence minister suspected of alleged civil war offences, and ex-Guatamalan police chief Erwin Sperisen, accused of human rights abuses. ...
Sperisen, the former head of Guatemala’s police force from 2004 to 2007, and a Swiss-Guatemalan dual national, was arrested on August 31 in Geneva, where he had been living with his family since 2007, on suspicion of involvement in extra-judicial killings and other human rights abuses in the Central American country.
The ex-police chief, who vehemently denies the accusations, spent Christmas in Geneva’s Champ-Dollon prison, where he is being held in custody until February 26 amid on-going investigations.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1014349122
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Erwin Sperisen is convicted in Switzerland for the death of ten prisoners
Erwin Sperisen, former director of the National Civil Police of Guatemala (PNC), will purge a life sentence for the extrajudicial execution of ten inmates, as decided by a second instance court in the Swiss city of Geneva.
By agency EFE / Geneva
The trial in both first and second instance of Sperisen in Switzerland responds to the fact that the Swiss legislation does not provide for the extradition of its citizens, but recognizes its courts jurisdiction to judge crimes committed by them in other countries.
The judges who formed the court of second instance considered that the responsibility of Sperisen in the summary execution of seven inmates of the prison of Pavón in 2006 was proven.
In six cases, the court found that Sperisen is jointly responsible for the deaths of the inmates, who were summarily executed, and the crime scene was subsequently modified to show confrontations that never occurred.
In a seventh case, the Court considered that the ex-policeman was the direct author of the death of the detainee.
The Court of First Instance also judged the alleged involvement of the former police chief in the murder of three other prisoners after escaping from El Infiernito prison in 2005 and absolved Sperisen for lack of evidence.
Today, however, the judges of second instance declared Sperisen guilty of the murders of those three escaped prisoners of El Infiernito.
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http://www.prensalibre.com/guatemala/justicia/erwin-sperisen
Erwin Sperisen
Derp!
Pull this finger. Or else.
Q&A: Sperisen Trial “A Further Step in the Fight Against Impunity Across the Board”
By Isolda Agazzi
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Erwin Sperisen, a Swiss and Guatemalan citizen, is being tried in Geneva for the murder of ten prisoners in 2005 and 2006, when he was chief of the National Civil Police of Guatemala. Testimonies against him were brought mainly by a coalition led by TRIAL (Track Impunity Always), an NGO that brings international crimes to justice in Switzerland and before international institutions.
GENEVA, Jun 1 2014 (IPS) - Erwin Sperisen was chief of Guatemala’s National Civil Police from 2004 to 2007, when he left the country for Switzerland. In August 2010, the Guatemalan authorities issued an international arrest warrant, accusing him, among others, of extrajudicial executions in the prisons of Pavon and Infiernito.
The authorities of the canton of Geneva arrested him on August 31, 2012, but he could not be extradited to Guatemala because he also holds a Swiss passport. He is now standing trial in Switzerland and risks life imprisonment. The verdict in the trial, which started on May 15, is expected to be handed down on June 6.
Philip Grant
TRIAL (Track Impunity Always), an NGO that brings international crimes to justice in Switzerland and before international institutions, played a major role in bring Sperisen before the court. IPS talked to TRIAL director, Philip Grant.
IPS: What is at stake in this trial?
Philip Grant: The capacity of the Swiss judiciary to judge facts or crimes committed thousands of kilometres away, in a completely different context and culture. Switzerland has not held such a criminal trial since 2000, when a Rwandan mayor was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for his participation in genocide and crime against humanity.
More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/06/sperisen-trial-a-further-step-in-the-fight-against-impunity-across-the-board/
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