Verdict

Ex-Guatemalan Dictator Guilty of Genocide

Sentenced to 80 years in prison.

After a five-week trial that included over 100 witnesses, a Guatemalan court on Friday found Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. Montt ruled the country as dictator during one of the deadliest periods of its civil war, during which whole villages of the Maya Ixil ethnic group were systematically executed. The trial was the first time a former head of state has been put on trial by a national court on charges of genocide, and the guilty verdict is one for the books. Montt, 86, was sentenced to 80 years in jail, although his director of intelligence at the time was acquitted of both charges.