Swiss-Guatemalan ex-police chief loses appeal

ERWIN SPERISEN

THIS CONTENT WAS PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 28, 2019 2:17 PM NOV 28, 2019 - 14:17



Erwin Sperisen outside parliament in Bern on November 13

(Keystone)

Erwin Sperisen, the former head of Guatemala’s police force, has lost an appeal against a 15-year prison sentence for his complicity in the killing of seven prisoners in Guatemala in 2006.

Sperisen’s lawyers have announced they will go to the European Court of Human Rights.

In a decision published on Friday, the Federal Court in Lausanne confirmed the main points of the verdict handed down by a Geneva court on April 27, 2018. The judges ruled Sperisen’s conviction was unobjectionable. However, the Geneva judicial authorities must compensate him because of his acquittal for the death of three other people.

Sperisen, a dual Swiss-Guatemalan citizen who maintains his innocence in the murders, was initially sentenced to life in prison by a Geneva court for the crimes committed as head of the Guatemalan police force.

The legal proceedings have taken place in Switzerland because that is where he has lived since 2007 and Switzerland does not extradite its citizens. The case is a rare example of Swiss justice trying a defendant for crimes committed in another country.

More:
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/erwin-sperisen_swiss-guatemalan-ex-police-chief-loses-appeal/45399788



Big Dummy as the murderous Guatemalan police chief



Feeee Fi Fo Fummm







Even in a moment of seriousness, is it possible Sperisen is going for the old "pull my finger" gag?



Whatever you do, never get him cross.



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Story from last year:

Erwin Sperisen is sentenced to 15 years in prison for death of prisoners in Pavón
Former Chief of the National Civil Police (PNC) Erwin Sperisen was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a court in Geneva, Switzerland, for the death of seven inmates in Pavón.

By Drafting

Posted on April 27, 2018 at 6: 04h

In addition to the seven inmates who died during the Pavo Real operation , in 2006, for which the Prosecutor's Office requested life imprisonment , Sperisen was also tried for the death of three other inmates who escaped from the Infiernito prison , in which case the Swiss justice acquitted him .

Sperisen, of Guatemalan and Swiss nationality, had already been convicted in Geneva in 2015 for those 10 murders ; However, after having remained in prison for five years in a jail on the outskirts of Geneva, he recovered provisional release in September 2017, after the federal court, the highest judicial instance in Switzerland, annulled his chain conviction perpetual and order that the case be re-examined .

> Read more | Sperisen: "The process against me has been political"

The version of the Government then was that the prisoners died in a confrontation with the security forces, but the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman warned in a 2007 report about the possibility of extrajudicial executions.

Due to his dual citizenship - his paternal grandfather was a Swiss citizen who emigrated to the country - Sperisen cannot be extradited to Guatemala, a country that requires him for accusations of having directly or indirectly murdered those inmates in 2005 and 2006.

However, Swiss law allows any of its citizens to be prosecuted for crimes committed in another country.
“I was the one who informed the Geneva authorities about the accusations that were weighing on me, I volunteered to the Public Ministry and showed my willingness to collaborate, but I have been treated as a fugitive and I will not answer the questions,” Sperisen had recently pointed out. , according to the agency EFE.

More:
https://www.prensalibre.com/guatemala/politica/erwin-sperisen-condena-suiza-muerte-reos-pavon-guatemala/