[JURIST] Guatemalan judicial authorities must prevent further “obstruction of justice” in the ongoing genocide trial against the former dictator and the former chief of intelliegence, according to a statement [press release] by two experts from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] released Thursday. José Efraín Ríos Montt [JURIST news archive] and José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez, respectively, are charged with crimes against humanity and genocide for their actions between 1982 and 1983 against the Mayan Ixil ethnic population. On Wednesday a Guatemalan court announced that Montt will stand trial in January 2016, but the results of a competency exam [JURISt reports] led the court to dictate that Montt cannot be sentenced because he has dementia. Adama Dieng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Pablo de Greiff, Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, criticize the court’s decision for representation by a legal guardian and a closed hearing for both defendants when only Rios Montt was determined mentally unfit. The UN speakers also stressed that time is of the essence: “The decision to schedule the new hearing for January 2016, does not reflect the decisive prioritization that the case merits. The defendants, witnesses and victims are all getting older. Two witnesses have passed away. Victims only ask to see that justice is served before they die.”

The ongoing trial of former dictator Rios Montt for his actions in the Guatemalan 1960-1996 civil war [Global Security backgrounder] continue to gather international attention. According to a UN report released in 1999, the military was responsible for 95 percent of the 200,000 deaths and disappearances during the war. In May the Guatemalan Congress approved a resolution [JURIST report] denying any existence of genocide during the civil war. Rios Montt was previously protected [JURIST report] from prosecution because he was serving as a member of congress, an immunity that had been lifted due to his departure from the legislature. The trial was subsequently delayed [JURIST report] in January, when one of the judges on a three-judge panel was asked to recuse herself from the trial on the grounds that she was biased because she wrote her master’s thesis on genocide. Rios Montt’s trial marks the first time a former head of state has been prosecuted for genocide in a national court, and the UN has praised [JURIST report] Guatemala’s efforts.