UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE URGES TRIAL TO BE DECIDED ON MERITS AFTER GUATEMALAN COURT OVERTURNS RÍOS MONTT CONVICTION

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 24 May 2013 17:00:01 -0400
Subject: UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE URGES TRIAL TO BE DECIDED ON MERITS
AFTER GUATEMALAN COURT OVERTURNS RÍOS MONTT CONVICTION
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE URGES TRIAL TO BE DECIDED ON MERITS AFTER
GUATEMALAN COURT OVERTURNS RÍOS MONTT CONVICTIONNew York, May 24 2013
5:00PMThe United Nations human rights office today said it was
"concerned" about the legal rights of Guatemalans after a high court
overturned the 80 year prison sentence against former military leader,
Efrain Ríos Montt.

"Amid continued legal uncertainty about what the ruling of the
Constitutional Court annulling the verdict on the Ríos Montt case
means in practice, we are concerned about the right of victims in
Guatemala to obtain remedies," the spokesperson for the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, told journalists in
Geneva.

"The victims have waited three decades for justice for atrocities
committed against the Ixil population, and it is unfortunate that a
verdict of such importance has been annulled on procedural grounds,"
Mr. Rupert continued.

He added that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) recalls "States' obligations to prosecute those responsible
for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity" and that it
hopes "this extremely important trial will be decided on its merits."

Mr. Ríos Montt was sentenced on 10 May to 80 years for his leading
role in the killing of 1,771 people during his time in office between
1982 and 1983, as well as for the forced displacement, starvation,
torture, and systematic rape and sexual assault that were deliberately
inflicted on Guatemala's Mayan Ixil communities.

A three-judge panel concluded that Mr. Ríos Montt had ordered the
plans that led to the genocide, had full knowledge of the atrocities
committed, and did nothing to stop them despite having the power to do
so. In all, some 200,000 people – over 80 per cent of them of
indigenous Mayan origin – were killed during the 36-year-long civil
war, but the period of Ríos Montt's rule is considered one of the
bloodiest in the conflict.

The conviction was welcomed by UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay, who
hailed Guatemala for making history by becoming the first country in
the world to convict a former head of State for genocide in its own
national court.

The case against Mr. Ríos Montt was overturned on 20 May, allowing the
86-year-old Mr. Ríos Montt to return to house arrest, according to
media reports.May 24 2013 5:00PM
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