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| |  | | Efrain Rios Montt | | | context : | Guatemala  | | judgement place : | Guatemala | | status : | Investigations underway | | particulars : | A criminal complaint against Efrain Rios Montt for acts of genocide is being investigated | | 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”).
On 6 June 2001, a criminal complaint concerning “acts of genocide and crimes against humanity” was submitted in the name of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), a collective of 23 Maya associations and survivors of the massacres.
The plaintiffs condemned the massacres committed by military forces in 11 villages in 1982, wherein hundreds of civilians were killed. The complaint was directed against Efrain Rios Montt and four other former members of the junta that was in power at that time: Egberto Horacio Maldonado Schaad, spokesman of the military junta from 23 March 1982 until June 1982; Francisco Luis Gordillo Martinéz, spokesman of the junta from June 1982 until 8 August 1983; Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores, Minister of Defence from 1 September 1982 until 8 August 1983; Héctor Mario Lopez Fuentes, chief of the army’s General Staff from 24 March 1982 until 21 October 1983.
A judge accepted the complaint and consented to the AJR taking part in the procedure as a civil party.
The complaint was passed on to the Metropolitan District Tribunal in order for the Prosecutor to commence a criminal inquiry against the accused.
Subsequent to this decision, the judicial authorities nominated Judge Marco Antonio Pichilla as Principal Judge (Juez Controlador) in charge of the file. This judge also ordered the Prosecutor to investigate the cases that include assassinations, tortures, rapes and the forcible transfer of survivors under inhumane conditions. The preliminary investigation was assigned to Special Judge Mario Leal.
In 2002, the Public Prosecutor’s Department of Special Affairs gathered evidence from about one hundred eye-witnesses and inspected four sites where the massacres had occurred. It examined forensic expert reports on the exhumations carried out at all the sites where these massacres had been committed.
The case is still undergoing investigation. | |    | | 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 : | | | 16.06.1924 | | | judgement period : | | | 06.06.2001 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
Genocide
Torture | | | profile last modified : | | | 18.02.2010 |
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