Guatemala court to restart ex-dictator genocide trial in 2015 after conviction was overturned

Published January 13, 2015

A Guatemalan court official says the trial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt will restart in January 2015 in response to the Constitutional Court throwing out an earlier conviction of the strongman for the massacre of thousands of Maya.

Court secretary Wilbert Molina said Tuesday that the panel of judges will be occupied with other trials in 2013 and 2014.

Molina says the trial is set to start Jan. 5, 2015, because appeals in the process have led to postponements.

In May, 87-year-old Rios Montt was sentenced to 80 years in prison after being convicted of knowing about the slaughter of 1,771 Ixil Mayans during Guatemala's civil war. The Constitutional Court overturned the conviction 10 days later, saying proceedings should have waited while defense appeals were resolved.

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