Guatemala genocide trial resumes after suspension

by admin
Apr 29, 2013

The trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt has resumed this week, after a 12-day suspension over procedural matters.

Earlier Rios Montt and his co-defendant Jose Rodriguez Sanchez were left without lawyers to represent their case after they argued the trial should be annulled. Meanwhile relatives of victims and other rights groups held several protests demanding the trial be resumed.

Jackie McVicar, Programs Coordinator for the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Solidarity Network, stated,

“People are pretty furious about how this happened. So many people believe there could be justice in Guatemala”

“This is like another layer into the defence trying to create a web, a legal web that’s going to take forever to untangle”.

Amnesty International researcher Sebastian Elgueta also commented, saying,

“The idea that you can avoid prosecution for something like genocide and crimes against humanity by ensuring a procedural mess is something that goes against the basic principles of justice and human rights”.

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button