For Guatemala ex-dictator, trial but no punishment

A Guatemalan courtroom says former dictator Efrain Rios Montt can stand trial on expenses of genocide and crimes towards humanity – however cannot be sentenced as a result of the 89-year-old suffers from.

Doctors have told the court he suffers dementia, and further testing found he lacked the capacity to appear at a public hearing.

He is accused of ordering the massacre of over 1,700 Ixil Maya people, as part of efforts to stamp out support for leftist guerrilla groups.

He was sentenced to 80 years in prison at an initial trial in 2013 – the first former head of state in the world to be tried for genocide in a domestic court.

“He waged a genocide against our people. 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. He can be found innocent or guilty, but will not receive a sentence because of his health conditions.

During the trial, nearly 100 witnesses testified over counts of rape, infanticide and the destruction of crops to induce starvation. The retrial was meant to begin in January, but a series of procedural setbacks and defense tactics have stalled the process. Due to cognitive deterioration, the 89-year-old would not be able to defend himself against charges that he was responsible for the killings of almost 2,000 indigenous Maya during a particularly brutal stretch of the country’s 36-year civil war, the National Forensic Science Institute determined.