Guatemala Attorney General Seeks Trial of Former Military Men
Guatemala Attorney General Seeks Trial of Former Military Men
Published 7 February 2017 (8 hours 22 minutes ago)
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The attorney general of Guatemala asked a court Tuesday to move forward on the trial of the former military chief of staff Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia and four other high-ranking officials for the 1981 kidnapping and disappearance of 14-year-old Marco Antonio Molina Theissen, including the torture and rape of his sister Emma Guadeloupe.
The solicitation to move forward with the Molina Theissen case follows decades of victims clamoring for justice for the brutal crimes carried out during Guatemala’s bloody 36 years of military dictatorships. All five former top military officials would be tried for crimes against humanity, forced disappearance and aggravated rape. The judge's decision is expected in the coming week.
Lucas Garcia, the brother of former dictator Romero Lucas Garcia and the four others accused — former commanders Francisco Luis Gordillo and Edilberto Letona and former military intelligence agents Hugo Ramiro Zaldaña and Manuel Antonio Callejas — have been in pre-trial detention since being arrested in January 2016.
Initially, only four were linked to the case. Lucas Garcia — currently facing prosecution along with several other former military officers for the disappearance of at least 558 civilians between 1981 and 1988 — was added when additional charges were announced in August 2016 related to his role overseeing counterinsurgency strategy at the time that Emma Guadeloupe was detained and Marco Antonio was disappeared.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Guatemala-Attorney-General-Seeks-Trial-of-Former-Military-Men-20170207-0016.html