Telesur.png Rios Montt to be Tried for Genocide but in camera, and with no prison sentence AFP and Prensa Latina, Telesur, Venezuela, 25 August 2015 A Guatemalan court ruled Tuesday that former dictator Efrain Rios Montt will face retrial for genocide during the country's civil war, but behind closed doors because of his deteriorating health. He will face no prison sentence if found guilty. The 89-year-old former general is accused of ordering the Guatemalan army to massacre almost 2,000 Ixil Maya Indigenous people. The 89-year-old former dictator, who ruled the Central American country de facto from March 1982 to August 1983 after a coup, will finally be retried in court on Jan. 11. He is accused of ordering the army to massacre almost 2,000 Ixil Maya Indigenous people. The court's decision comes after medical experts found Rios Montt suffered from dementia: "The psychiatric experts all agreed the accused suffers mental illness," Judge Jaime Gonzalez said Friday. He concluded that "the incapacity of the accused to appear in public court has been demonstrated," and ruled the trial must be held behind closed doors, with no journalists present. Rios Montt will also be absent of the trial and represented by two attorneys. As for Rios Montt's Military Intelligence Chief, Jose Rodriguez, he will be tried separately in open court, the judge ruled. He was also involved in the massacre of Indigenous people. guatemalatrial1.jpg Guatemalan Maya women outside court Victims' relatives welcomed the decision. "He waged a genocide against our people. Many people died. They burned our houses and our animals. It can't go unpunished," said Maria Cedillo, a 49-year-old woman from the town of Santa Maria Nebaj who was wearing the colorful clothing traditional among the Ixil Maya. "I want him to pay for what he did." In May 2013, Rios Montt was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity for the thousands of human rights abuses committed during his 1980s dictatorship, but the historic verdict and accompanying 80-year prison sentence were overturned just 10 days later, purportedly due to errors in the judicial process. During the trial, almost 100 witnesses testified over counts of rape, infanticide and the destruction of crops to induce starvation. Rios Montt's defense team has deliberately delayed the case to prevent their client from again standing trial for charges of genocide. The retrial was intended to begin in January, but a series of procedural setbacks and defense tactics have stalled the process. Rios Montt's military regime carried out a scorched earth campaign, largely against the country's Indigenous population, marking one of the bloodiest periods of Guatemala's 36-year civil war. The former despot is accused of killing at least 1,771 Guatemalans, committing 1,400 human rights violations, and displacing tens of thousands of Indigenous people. From: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Rios-Montt-to-Be-Tried-for-Genocide-bu t-Not-Sentenced--20150825-0028.html -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
