  |  | | 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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| | | | 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.
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- The Guatemalan judicial authorities are not yet capable of dispensing justice. Some judges, lawyers and witnesses have already been murdered; others have received threats to their lives.
The case has also triggered controversies within the Spanish judiciary. On 27 March 2000, Judge Guillermo Ruiz Polanca declared himself competent to open the case against the Guatemalan dictators. However, on 1 December of the same year, the highest Spanish Criminal Court ruled with 4 against 3 votes that the proceedings had to be stopped, one reason being that “the Guatemalan judiciary investigated the case, which means that the Spanish courts are incompetent.”
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 with 8 versus 7 votes. In effect, it denied the Spanish courts the competence to judge the genocide inflicted upon the Guatemalan Maya, but it authorized them to deal with the murder of Spanish citizens in Guatemala.
According to the majority of the judges, “the Spanish judiciary is competent to investigate the circumstances that lead to the attack on the embassy and to examine the murder of Spanish priests by the Guatemalan army.” Furthermore, the Spanish judiciary “condemns the crimes perpetrated against the Guatemalan Maya”, but declares itself incompetent to judge them.
On 26 September 2005, the Spanish Constitutional Court rejected this view. It asserted that according to international law, the fact that the victims are of Spanish nationality is not required to pass judgement. According to the Court, the existence (or non-existence) of national interests must remain secondary in view of the principle of universal jurisdiction.
On 7 July 2006, a Spanish judge ordered Efrain Rios Montt and his co-defendants to be taken into detention. An international arrest warrant was issued in that regard.
On 14 December 2007, the Guatemalan Constitutionsl Court refused the extradition of Rios Montt and the other high ranking officials claiming that Spain did not have jurisdiction in those 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 : | | | 19.12.2007 |
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