Former Guatemalan President Jose Efrain Rios Montt was convicted of genocide and sentenced to 80 years in prison for massacres committed during his reign 30 years earlier. A three-judge court ruled that he had full knowledge and control over a scorched-earth policy carried out by the military that killed thousands of indigenous people in the north-western highlands. The court sentenced the 86-year-old retired general to 50 years for genocide and an additional 30 years for crimes against humanity on specific charges of killing 1,771 people in 15 massacres in the Ixil region, according to a report of DPA. 'The crime of systematic genocide was committed against the Maya Ixil population in Guatemala,' judge Jazmin Barrios said in handing down the verdict. 'He had full knowledge of everything that was happening and did not stop it.' Rios Montt took power after a coup in 1982 until he was ovethrown in another coup 17 months later. His reign is considered to be the deadliest period in Guatemala's 36-year civil war that killed more than 200,000 people. The court acquitted co-defendant Jose Mauricio Rodriguez, chief of intelligence under Rios Montt, of similar charges.
