Former Guatemalan Dictator's Genocide Conviction and Prison Sentence Overturned

Voided by the Constitutional Court

GUATEMALA CITY, May 21 (UPI) -- The Constitutional Court, the highest court in Guatemala, voided the genocide conviction and prison term of former dictator Gen. Efrain Rios Montt.

Observers said the decision Monday was a major defeat for human rights advocates who had called Rios Montt's conviction earlier this month evidence that the courts would no longer allow Guatemala's powerful to act with impunity, The New York Times reported.