  |  | | Audiencia Nacional, Sala de lo Penal
En Madrid, trece de Diciembre de dos mil | | | Decision of the Audienca Nacional, December 13, 2000
Universal Jurisdiction Info Website, with comments in english | | | Decision of the investigating judge, March 27, 2000
Universal Jurisdiction Info Website, with comments in english | | | Sentencia del Tribunal Constitucional
(26 septiembre 2005) | | | Sentencia del Tribunal Supremo sobre el caso Guatemala por genocidio
En la Villa de Madrid, a veinticinco de Febrero de dos mil tres | | | Supreme Court Decision, February 25, 2003
Universal Jurisdiction Info Website, with comments in english |
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| |  | | Efrain Rios Montt | | | context : | Guatemala  | | judgement place : | Spain | | status : | Sought - Arrest warrant | | particulars : | Criminal complaint filed in Spain for genocide and crimes against humanity; international arrest warrant issued on July 7, 2006; extradition refused by a Guatemalan court on 14 December 2007 | | position : | Head of State |
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| | | | Two sets of legal proceedings were instituted against Efrain Rios Montt: one in Spain, the other in Guatemala (see “related cases”).
In December 1999, the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation (Nobel Peace Prize laureate) submitted indictments against eight Guatemalan militaries – amongst them General Rios Montt – for genocide, torture and crimes against humanity. The indictments were submitted to Spanish rather than Guatemalan Courts, for two reasons:
- several Spanish citizens were victims of repression in Guatemala. On 30 June 1980 the Spanish embassy was attacked and destroyed upon military command after about thirty demonstrators of a Maya farmers’ union had taken refuge there; 36 people died, among them the plaintiff’s father.
- The Guatemalan judicial authorities were not considered to be in a position of dispensing justice. Some judges, lawyers and witnesses had already been murdered; others had received threats to their lives.
This case nevertheless triggered controversy within the Spanish judiciary. On 27 March 2000, Judge Guillermo Ruiz Polanca declared himself competent to take up the case against the Guatemalan dictators. However, on 1 December of the same year, the highest Spanish Criminal Court ruled by 4 votes to three that the proceedings had to be abandoned , one reason, among others, being that “the Guatemalan judiciary is capable of trying the case, thereby voiding the competence of the Spanish courts”.
In March 2003, the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Fonundation filed an appeal against this decision. On 23 February 2003, the Appeal Court allowed the appeal at least partially by 8 votes to 7 . In effect, it denied the Spanish courts competence to judge the genocide inflicted upon the Maya Indians of Guatemala, but allowed them competence over the murder of Spanish citizens in Guatemala.
According to the majority of the judges, “the Spanish judiciary is competent to investigate the circumstances that led to the attack on the embassy and to examine the murder of Spanish priests by the Guatemalan army.” On the other hand, whereas it “condemns the crimes perpetrated against the Guatemalan Maya”, it declared the Spanish judiciary incompetent to judge them.
On 26 September 2005, the Spanish Constitutional Court rejected this narrow viewpoint of the Supreme Court. It asserted that according to international law, it was not necessary that there be Spanish victims in order to sit on judgement on international crimes. According to the Court, the existence (or non-existence) of national interests must take second place to the principle of universal jurisdiction in such cases.
On 7 July 2006, a Spanish judge ordered Efrain Rios Montt and his seven co-defendants to be remanded in custody pending trial. An international arrest warrant was issued to that end.
On 14 December 2007, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court refused the extradition of Rios Montt and the other high ranking officials claiming that Spain did not have jurisdiction over these cases. | |    | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Guatemala | | | date of birth : | | | 16.06.1926 | | | last time seen : | | | Guatemala | | | judgement period : | | | 12.1999 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
Genocide
Other
Torture | | | profile last modified : | | | 18.02.2010 |
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