Guatemala's Constitutional Court on Monday overturned the genocide conviction of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, and ordered that the trial must restart from the point where two of the country's judges disputed last month over who should hear the case.
In its ruling, the Constitutional Court threw out all proceedings in the case after April 19, when the trial was suspended because of the judges' dispute. The country's top court also ordered that the trial must restart from that point.
Incidentally, Monday's ruling came after Montt's lawyers appealed the Constitution Court after the suspension of the trial last month, alleging irregularities in the handling of their client's case.
Nevertheless, a three-judge panel had found Montt guilty on May 10 of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during his term in office, and sentenced him to 80 years in prison.
Eighty-six-year-old Montt was accused of ordering the massacre of some 1,771 indigenous Mayans in the Ixil region of southern Quiche department during the former's 1982-83 rule, when some of the worst civil war atrocities occurred.
In addition to charges relating to genocide and crimes against humanity, Montt also faced charges relating to the forceful displacement of some 29,000 indigenous Guatemalans during his brief 17-month rule in the Latin American nation.
It is estimated that the 36-year-long civil war from 1960 to 1996 killed almost a quarter of a million people in Guatemala before it ended. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights had earlier ordered Guatemala to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the atrocities committed during the brutal civil war.
Subsequently, a court in Guatemala ruled last year that Montt must face trial for genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the civil war. Montt has been under house-arrest ever since his immunity was lifted on January 14, following the expiry of his term as a Congressman.
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