GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Guatemala’s Supreme Court yesterday 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.
