By Mike McDonald
GUATEMALA CITY, April 19 (Reuters) – The genocide trial of
former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was mired in
uncertainty on Friday as judges squabbled over who should hear
the case following an order to annul nearly a year-and-a-half of
proceedings.
The trial was suspended on Thursday when Judge Patricia
Flores, who was originally assigned to the case, ruled all
actions taken since she was recused in November 2011 were void,
citing an order from the country’s top courts.
But on Friday one of the presiding judges said that order
was illegal and requested the constitutional court resolve the
matter.
Rios Montt, 86, is facing charges of genocide and crimes
against humanity for a counterinsurgency plan conceived under
his 1982-83 rule that killed 1,771 members of the Ixil
indigenous group.
The trial took years to set in motion after Rios Montt’s
lawyers repeatedly delayed efforts to make the retired general
face prosecution.
Flores’ announcement sparked anger among victims of the
country’s 1960-1996 civil war, who want the prosecution of Rios
Montt to bring justice. A former Army general, Rios Montt ruled
the country during one of the bloodiest phases of the war.
Yasmin Barrios, who has overseen Rios Montt’s trial with two
other judges since it began last month, said Flores’ order was
illegal, but suspended the hearings on Friday pending a ruling
by the Constitutional Court to settle the dispute.
“No public official or citizen is obliged to execute illegal
orders … and this court will not do it,” Barrios told the
court in Guatemala City where Rios Montt has been on trial.
More than 100 people applauded Barrios’ decision and began
to chant ‘justice, justice’ as she left the court room.
Flores’ intervention came just days before prosecutors had
hoped for a judgment in the trial, which has stirred up powerful
emotions in Guatemala and cast a harsh light on the actions of
the armed forces during the civil war.
More than a hundred victims have testified during the trial,
retelling stories of torture, rape and arson that they endured
during Rios Montt’s 17-month rule.
One prosecution witness even implicated President Otto
Perez, himself a retired general, saying that soldiers under his
command carried out atrocities in the war.
DISMAY
The United Nations’ human rights office voiced alarm on
Friday at the suspension of the trial, calling it a blow to
victims who have waited decades for justice.
Rights groups in Guatemala also expressed dismay.
“(Flores’) decision is unimaginable,” said Francisco
Dall’Anese, a prosecutor who heads the U.N.-backed Commission
Against Impunity in Guatemala.
“Guatemala’s judicial code is very clear in stating that the
process cannot be rewound to a previous phase that has already
concluded in order to correct errors,” he added.
Initially involved in the case, Flores was recused after a
lawyer representing another man then under investigation with
Rios Montt complained she would not be impartial.
She was not informed of the recusal until 2012, when she
stepped down. Prosecuting lawyers appealed that decision and a
court overturned her recusal last month. Defense lawyers then
argued she should have been kept on the case.
(Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Paul Simao)
