Date set for trial in murder of Guatemala bishop Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - "Alice Zachmann" Date set for trial in murder of Guatemala bishop GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Three army officers, a priest and an elderly cook will stand trial in Guatemala City on Feb. 15 for the 1998 murder of human rights advocate Bishop Jose Juan Gerardi, legal officials said on Thursday. Judge Jose Eduardo Cujulun told reporters the five were charged with murder. He identified the accused military officers as Capt. Byron Lima Oliva; his father, Col. Disrael Lima Estrada; and a former presidential bodyguard, Obdulio Villanueva. The judge said Father Mario Orantes and Margarita Lopez, who worked as a cook in the parish house where Gerardi lived and worked, were also charged. Gerardi was bludgeoned to death just two days after he released a landmark report blaming Guatemala's army for atrocities during a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996 and claimed 200,000 lives. Three judges have resigned in the case, the first amid charges of incompetence, the second after receiving death threats and the third following accusations of favoring one of the defendants in an earlier, separate trial. The Roman Catholic Church, the international community and national human rights organizations have called on Guatemalan authorities to investigate Gerardi's murder and to punish those responsible. 16:19 02-01-01 ------------------------------------------------ Courtesy of: The Law Office of Jose Pertierra 1010 Vermont Avenue, NW #620 Washington, DC 20005 202 783 6666 JosePertierra@aol.com ------------------------------------------------ ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-02.03.01-21:32:39-4005