Sexual Crimes in Conflict Database
A collection of relevant literature and case law
Showing all 1 results.
-
Jurisprudence judicial mechanism
Guatemala, High Impact Court ‘A’ - Efraín Ríos Montt (“Montt and Menchu”)
- Issues
- Socio-cultural Context of Sexual Violence Procedural Rules Advancing Sexual Violence Prosecutions Achievements and Challenges of Sexual Violence Prosecution Sentencing and Reparations Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War
- Country
- Guatemala
- Keywords
- Ethnic Cleansing Spoil of War Retrial Indigenous Population Mental Incapacity of Accused
- Reference link
- http://www.ijmonitor.org/2018/04/the-legacy-of-rios-montt-guatemalas-most-notorious-war-criminal/
- Type of mechanism
- Domestic court
- Name of mechanism
- Guatemalan High Impact Court 'A', Constitutional Court
- Name of accused
- Efraín Ríos Montt
- Charges
- Montt was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, including sexual violence, under command responsibility.
- Trial chamber verdict
- On 10 May 2013 he was found guilty by a Guatemalan trial court (High Impact Court ‘A’) of genocide and crimes against humanity, including sexual violence, under command responsibility. The conviction was for crimes committed against Guatemala’s Maya Ixil indigenous population during Montt’s 17-month rule in 1982 and 1983. According to the Court, women were raped, not only as the ‘spoils of war’, but as part of the systematic and intentional plan to destroy the Ixil ethnic group by exercising violence on women’s bodies as a way to destroy the social fabric and thereby ensure the destruction of the Ixil population. Specific reference was made to the testimony of one woman, who narrated how she was raped by more than 20 soldiers while she was held prisoner in a military base. The tribunal noted that sexual violence results in pain and suffering that is still experienced by many of the women, and that the violence has an inter-generational effect, noting that women reproduce life as well as culture.
- sentencing
- At first instance only: Montt, 86 years old, was sentenced to 80 years in prison (50 years for genocide and 30 years for crimes against humanity, served consecutively). Furthermore, as part of the reparation requirements, the judges ordered personal apologies to be made to the survivors of sexual violence.
- Appeals chamber verdict
- However, on 20 May 2013, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court annulled the trial judgment on procedural grounds and a retrial was subsequently ordered. In 2014, the retrial was suspended when the defense sought the removal of one of the judges on the case. On 11 January 2016, the retrial was suspended again for the court to resolve outstanding legal petitions. The hearing was held behind closed doors and Montt did not attend because of ‘mental incapacity’, which the court had decided he was suffering from in 2015 already. On 1 April, 2018, the lawyer of Ríos Montt reported that he had died of a heart failure.
- Status
- 2715
- Case number
- Exp 1904-2013
This is free software. Created with LinkAhead
and Django. Licenced under AGPL version 3.0 (Sources).