Tegucigalpa, March 2 (RHC) --The United Nations human rights office welcomed the news that a Guatemalan judge rejected the claim that a former dictator is protected from being tried on genocide charges under an amnesty law.

Efrain Rios Montt, 85, ruled Guatemala from 1982 to 1983 when some of the country’s worst civil war atrocities occurred, including the murder, torture and displacement of thousands of indigenous Mayans.

For the past 12 years, Mr. Rios Montt served as a congressman and enjoyed immunity from prosecution. However, this immunity was lifted on January 14, 2012, when he lost a re-election race last year.

Judge Miguel Angel Galvez ruled the amnesty law is invalid because of a 1949 international treaty against genocide that Guatemala signed long before the amnesty was declared.

This ruling “appears to open the door to striking down amnesty for anyone accused of genocide related to the country’s 36-year civil war, in which around 200,000 people are believed to have been killed,” said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, he reiterated Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)’s position regarding amnesties, saying that they should never be granted for serious international crimes.

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