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| Rios Montt faces Guatemala genocide retrial | Rios Montt faces Guatemala genocide retrial |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| The retrial on genocide charges of Guatemala's ex-military ruler General Efrain Rios Montt has begun. | |
| The 88-year-old was wheeled into court on a stretcher, with his lawyer saying he was suffering from poor health. | |
| The general was found guilty in 2013 of ordering the mass killing of indigenous people in the early 1980s, but his conviction was later overturned. | The general was found guilty in 2013 of ordering the mass killing of indigenous people in the early 1980s, but his conviction was later overturned. |
| It is the first time that a former head of state has faced genocide charges in a court in his own country. | |
| Overturned | Overturned |
| Gen Rios Montt and his former intelligence chief, Gen Jose Rodriguez, were tried in 2013 on charges of ordering the army to carry out a series of massacres in which 1,771 people of the Ixil Maya ethnic group were killed. | Gen Rios Montt and his former intelligence chief, Gen Jose Rodriguez, were tried in 2013 on charges of ordering the army to carry out a series of massacres in which 1,771 people of the Ixil Maya ethnic group were killed. |
| Over three days in the early 1980s, soldiers systematically killed hundreds of men, women and children, shooting or bludgeoning them to death and throwing bodies down a well. | |
| Gen Rodriguez was acquitted while Gen Rios Montt was found guilty and sentenced to 80 years in prison. | Gen Rodriguez was acquitted while Gen Rios Montt was found guilty and sentenced to 80 years in prison. |
| Less than two weeks after Gen Rios Montt's conviction, Guatemala's highest court threw out the verdicts and ordered a retrial, arguing that the accused had been left without a lawyer at key stages of the trial. | Less than two weeks after Gen Rios Montt's conviction, Guatemala's highest court threw out the verdicts and ordered a retrial, arguing that the accused had been left without a lawyer at key stages of the trial. |
| The ruling annulled everything that had happened in the trial after 19 April 2013, the day when the defence team was expelled for accusing the presiding judge of failing to hear its legal challenges. | The ruling annulled everything that had happened in the trial after 19 April 2013, the day when the defence team was expelled for accusing the presiding judge of failing to hear its legal challenges. |
| Gen Rios Montt and Gen Rodriguez have been under house arrest since. | Gen Rios Montt and Gen Rodriguez have been under house arrest since. |
| Gen Rodriguez arrived at the tribunal in Guatemala City in a wheelchair on Monday saying that he did not fear a renewed trial. |