No military tribunals
Civil trials for bishop’s accused killers

Guatemala’s Constitutional Court has ruled that three suspects in the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera should be tried in civilian courts, and not military tribunals as they had requested.

Bishop Gerardi was bludgeoned to death on April 26, 1998, two days after he released a report that blamed the Guatemalan military and its paramilitary allies for most of the deaths in the country’s 36-year civil war that ended in 1996. Sgt. Byron Lima, his father, retired Col. Byron Disrael Lima Estrada, and Jose Obdilo Villanueva, a former member of Guatemala’s feared presidential guard, have been jailed on murder charges. They had requested the change of venue for their trial.

“It is established that common crimes should be handled by a civilian and not a military court, even though those involved are military officers,” the Court of Constitutionality wrote in its decision.

Also charged with murder is Father Mario Orantes Najera, who had lived with the bishop. Father Orantes was originally released after spending seven months in prison in 1998 on the murder charge. He was newly arrested and again charged with complicity in the killing in March, and is now under house arrest in a hospital while receiving treatment for various ailments. The bishop’s cook has also been named as a suspect.

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