Former Guatemalan dictator to face retrial over Mayan genocide

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Former Guatemalan dictator Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt will face a new genocide trial for his alleged role in persecuting Maya Ixil Indians, but will be tried behind closed doors as he suffers from dementia.

Ríos Montt, 89, will not be required to attend the trial, where he will be represented by his lawyers. The start of the retrial is scheduled for January 11.

The retired general was convicted and sentenced in 2013 to 80 years imprisonment in connection the the killing of 1,771 people in the Mayan Highlands during 1982 and 1983. Ríos Montt ruled Guatemala for nearly 17 months within that period.

Guatemala's constitutional court overturned that conviction 10 days later on a technicality. If the general is convicted in the retrial, he would be detained at home or in a hospital.

Regardless of Ríos Montt's mental state, a retrial was needed to "demonstrate the facts that serious human rights crimes were committed," Héctor Reyes, a lawyer at the Center for Legal Action on Human Rights who represents the Maya Ixil victims, told The New York Times.

"They cannot remain in impunity," Reyes added.