3 army officers & priest guilty of RC Bishop's slaying

Описание: (8 Jun 2001)

June 8, 2001

1. Interior of court room
2. Judges entering court room
3. Accused military entering courtroom
4. Accused Captain Byron Lima Estrada
5. Accused Reverend Mario Orantes
6. Accused Colonel Byron Disrael Estrada
7. Wide of accused
8. Cook Margarita Lopez
9. Obdulio Villanueva, military accused
10. Wide of courtroom
11. Wide of accused
12. Disrael Estrada
13. Captain Byron Lima Estrada
14. Obdulio Villanueva
15. Priest Mario Orantes
16. Captain Byron Lima Estrada
17. Judges reading sentence
18. Cook Margarita Lopez
19. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Priest Mario Orantes
(Question: "Do you think the decision about the bishop is unfair?) "Definitely."
20. Captain Byron Lima talking to press
21. SOUNDBITE: (English) Helen Mack, Human Rights foundation
"Well I think a wall of impunity has been knocked down. I think our persistence has paid off. I think this court has shown a lot of courage in passing this sentence, and objectivity. And I think it's given those who have suffered human rights abuses some hope. And I think many Guatemalans will feel vindicated by this sentencing."
22. Exterior of court in Guatemala city

File
April 27, 1998
23. Body of bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera in garage
24. Blood on floor

April 24, 1998
25. Conedera addressing congregation
26. Conedera greeting people

STORYLINE:

A Guatemalan tribunal has found three officers and a priest guilty for the 1998 slaying of a popular bishop and human rights campaigner.

The sentencing was hailed by human rights groups, who have called for justice in the case of Juan Gerardi Conedera's murder.

The verdict seemed certain to add fuel to allegations that the army was involved in Gerardi's death, which came just two days after he had presented a report blaming the military for an overwhelming majority of the 200-thousand deaths in Guatemala's 36-year civil war.

Colonel Disrael Lima Estrada, a former chief of military intelligence who prosecutors said had masterminded the killing to keep the bishop from testifying in possible trials over wartime killings, was found guilty of homicide and sentenced to 30 years.

Guilty on the same charges were Lima's son, Captain Byron Lima Oliva, and Jose Obdulio Villanueva, both former members of the presidential guard; both were sentenced to 30 years.

Captain Lima was sentenced to two more years on a false documents charge.

Gerardi's assistant, Reverend Mario Orantes, was found guilty of acting as an accomplice in the bludgeoning death of Gerardi at his residence, and was sentenced to 20 years.

Prosecutors said Orantes, who lived at Gerardi's residence, had given the killers access and information on the bishop.

Gerardi's cook, Margarita Lopez, was found innocent of similar charges.

The fact the tribunal was able to even try the army officers was an indicator of Guatemala's emergence from the brutal era of the civil war, when political slayings were common and courts often were cowed.

Gerardi, who was the 75-year-old head of the Catholic Church's human rights office, was bludgeoned to death with a concrete block at his Guatemala City seminary on April 26, 1998.

Gerardi's 1998 report blamed the army for 95 percent of the killings and disappearances during the 1960-1996 civil war, almost all of which have gone unpunished.

The key prosecution witness was Ruben Chanax, a homeless man who testified that the Limas and Villanueva had hired him to spy on Gerardi, had told him someone would die on the night of the killing, and enlisted his help in altering the crime scene before police could arrive.




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