Guatemala Crime: Ex-Dictator Ríos Montt's Genocide Case Suspended

The planned closed-door hearing for the genocide case of Guatemala's ex-dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, set for Monday, was suspended due to pending petitions from the defense.

According to a report from Tico Times, lawyers from the defense and prosecution announced the suspension of the hearing that was ordered by the Guatemala City court back in 2013, following a decision that overturned Ríos Montt's conviction and sentence for the same charges.

Jaime Hernández, one of the members of the defense, told the press in the court house that the court "decided to suspend the start of the trial of former general Ríos Montt because of three pending petitions to resolve."

The said trial was scheduled on Monday, January 11, without the accused 89-year-old because he is already senile and bedridden in his home in a wealthy district in the Guatemalan capital.

Ríos Montt ruled the country from 1982 to 1983 and is accused of killing 1,771 members of the Maya Ixil indigenous tribe residing in Quiche, located in the northern region of Guatemala, with the help of his former military intelligence chief, José Rodríguez.

The move was reportedly aimed at removing rural support for the leftist guerrilla group during the course of the civil war between 1960 and 1996.

According to BBC, he was convicted of the charges and was sentenced to spend 80 years in prison.

However, a high court in the territory overturned the conviction due to procedural grounds, and ordered a retrial to be conducted.

Because of the weight of his accusation, the case became high profile and was intensely monitored all over the world, particularly by rights defense groups.

After news of the trial suspension broke, human rights advocacy group Amnesty International immediately released a statement condemning the move.

"By allowing Ríos Montt to evade the courts for decades, the Guatemalan authorities have been playing a cruel game with the victims of the tens of thousands of people who were tortured, killed, disappeared and forcibly displaced under his command and their relatives," said the group's Americas Director Erika Guevara-Rosas.

The statement further deemed the suspension of the trial to be "a slap in the face of the victims still trying to heal the wounds of decades of brutal civil war."

According to BBC, another trial is set for July but is most likely going to be suspended again since the medical examiner deemed the former dictator mentally incompetent to participate.

This was echoed by Human Rights Legal Action Center lawyer Hector Reyes who expressed his fears to Tico Times that the defense is using delaying tactics that could end up in the cancellation of the trial altogether.