Guatemala: 4 Convicted in Gerardi Murder Trial Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Friday June 8 6:21 PM ET (via Yahoo) Four Convicted in Guatemala Bishop Murder Trial By Greg Brosnan GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) -- Three men linked to Guatemala's military and a priest were convicted on Friday of the 1998 murder of human rights advocate Bishop Juan Gerardi and each sentenced to prison in a landmark trial in a nation where the rule of law is shaky. A three-judge tribunal found retired army Col. Byron Lima Estrada, his army captain son Byron Lima Oliva and former presidential bodyguard Jose Obdulio Villanueva guilty of murder and sentenced them each to 30 years in prison. Roman Catholic priest Mario Orantes was sentenced to 20 years as an accessory to the murder while Gerardi's housemaid Margarita Lopez was acquitted. Gerardi was found bludgeoned to death on April 26, 1998, in his Guatemala City residence shortly after releasing a report blaming the military for most of the 200,000 deaths during the Central American nation's 36-year civil war. The case, delayed for three years as prosecutors, witnesses and a judge fled the country amid death threats, has been seen as a test of Guatemala's fragile justice system. The trial began on March 23, two days after a grenade attack on one judge's house. The outcome was hailed as a victory by members of Guatemalan human rights groups who waited overnight in a packed courtroom as sentencing was delayed until dawn. Others held a candlelit vigil outside with banners bearing Gerardi's image. "This sentence shows us that all the years of fighting haven't been in vain," prominent activist Helen Mack told reporters in tears. Relatives of the defendants silently wept. Dressed in a medal-laden military uniform as police led him away in handcuffs, Lima Oliva, who had remained stone-faced throughout the sentencing, accused judges of taking bribes in the case. "Dollars, dollars, dollars," he said pointedly, surrounded by police. "I'm a good soldier. I'll continue the fight to prove our innocence." Lawyers for the defendants said they would appeal the sentences. Many in the poverty-stricken nation of 12 million inhabitants feared Gerardi's death signaled a return to the country's violent past and proved the country's once-mighty army was not yet ready to relinquish its power. Solving the crime was among the election promises that catapulted President Alfonso Portillo to power last year. In Washington, the State Department said the verdicts sent a strong signal that justice would ultimately prevail in human rights cases in Guatemala. FOCUS ON BODYGUARD UNIT A written statement said: "We also encourage the government of Guatemala to continue its efforts to strengthen the rule of law by addressing other unresolved human rights cases." More than 100 people testified in a two-month trial held amid tight security, including former military chiefs, Roman Catholic priests and government officials. Witness testimonies shone the spotlight on a controversial presidential bodyguard unit linked to post-war military intelligence gathering, to which Lima Oliva and Villanueva belonged at different times. An ex-member of the corps said it had kept a file on Gerardi and wiretapped his telephone. Another witness, an indigent man who slept in a park outside the bishop's residence, said military intelligence had paid him to spy on Gerardi's movements. Leftist rebels signed peace accords with the Guatemalan government in 1996, ending a war that saw thousands of Maya Indians massacred by the Guatemalan army, state-sponsored paramilitary groups and guerrillas. ================================================================= 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-06.08.01-19:51:36-9112