Former Guatemalan Despot Efrain Rios Montt Incompetent to Stand Trial: Doctors

[Judi Lynn]

Former Guatemalan Despot Efrain Rios Montt Incompetent to Stand Trial: Doctors

World | Agence France-Presse | Updated: July 08, 2015 02:34 IST

Guatemala City: Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt, charged with genocide during a brief but particularly brutal period of the country's civil war, is incompetent to stand trial, doctors said Tuesday.

Rios Montt, 89, "is not in full use of his mental faculties, is not able to understand any of the charges against him, cannot understand the elements of a trial or judicial procedures and cannot contribute to his own defense," said a report by the Guatemalan Medical Examiner's Office.

The report was presented as evidence to a mid-level court to determine if he should be tried over the death of 201 farmers during his iron-fisted rule in the early 1980s.

But his lawyers say the report also affects a separate, much bigger case, one in which the aging ex-despot is charged with the genocide of Maya Indians.

More:
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/former-guatemalan-despot-efrain-rios-montt-incompetent-to-stand-trial-doctors-779211

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Efrain Rios Montt and his strong supporter, Ronald Reagan. [/center]

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141139102

[Judi Lynn]

1. Efrain Rios Montt stands to get away with the murder of 2000 indigenous Maya people

Efrain Rios Montt stands to get away with the murder of 2000 indigenous Maya people

PUBLISHED 17:11 July 8, 2015 UPDATED 17:24 July 8, 2015

By NEOnline | IR

The former dictator of Guatemala, Efrain Rios Montt, was proclaimed mentally unfit to stand trial on charges of genocide.

On Tuesday, the country’s forensic authority declared the 89-year-old man unable to defend himself on charges of organizing the systematic extermination of 2,000 indigenous Maya during a particularly brutal stretch of the country’s 36-year civil war, the National Forensic Science Institute determined.

Rios Montt is accused that during his 1982-83 rule he implemented a scorched-earth policy against native Central American nation in a conflict that claimed as many as 250,000 lives.

This decision does not oblige the court to drop the genocide case, but it is a strong argument for the defense team in a hearing scheduled for 23 July. Notably, Rios Montt was already found guilty of the genocide in May 2013, but the country’s constitutional court annulled the case on procedural grounds.

More:
http://www.neurope.eu/article/guatemalan-mass-murderer-evades-trial/