Swiss-Guatemalan ex-police chief sentenced to 15 years in prison
The dual national received his Swiss citizenship through his father. He is pictured at the Geneva courthouse on Friday morning.
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Erwin Sperisen, the former head of Guatemala’s police force, has been sentenced by Geneva's cantonal court to 15 years in prison for his "complicity" in the killing of seven inmates in 2006.
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The verdict was handed down on Friday, and judges ordered that Sperisen will have to serve up to ten years in jail, minus the five years he spent in pre-trial detention.
He will remain under house arrest for the time being. His lawyer said that Sperisen would be appealing the verdict.
Sperisen’s re-trial began two weeks ago, after an appeal was partially upheld by the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne last July.
According to the judges, his fault in the deaths is “extremely serious”, although there are still some “grey areas” regarding how the plan to commit the crimes came about.
A dual Swiss-Guatemalan citizen, Sperisen was accused of the extrajudicial killing of several prisoners between 2005 and 2006, while he was head of the central American country’s police force.
He was originally sentenced to life in prison by a Geneva court in 2014 for the crimes.
The legal proceedings have taken place in Switzerland because that is where Sperisen has lived since 2007, and the country does not extradite its citizens. The case is a rare example of Swiss justice trying a defendant for crimes committed in another country.
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Former police chief’s murder appeal partially upheld
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Erwin Sperisen, the former head of Guatemala’s national police, will be retried in Switzerland for his involvement in the killing of ten prisoners.
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Sperisen allegedly asked his subordinates to make it seem as though ten detainees had clashed with police in three separate incidents before they were shot. According to the Geneva prosecutor’s office, Sperisen, because of his rank, played a decisive role in the killings. In one case, he allegedly carried out one of the executions himself.…
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The Swiss-Guatemalan dual citizen was jailed for life in 2014 for involvement in the deaths of ten prison inmates in Guatemala between 2005-2006. But earlier this year judges ordered a retrial because his defence was compromised by irregularities in the original hearing. “We will be seeking damages of more than a million francs from canton…
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The Geneva prosecutor’s office said on Friday that Erwin Sperisen had been arrested on the basis of evidence submitted at the end of last year by the Guatemalan authorities, and more recent investigations. Sperisen, who has joint Guatemalan and Swiss nationality, resigned from his post at the head of the national police in March 2007,…
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Sperisen, a dual Swiss-Guatemalan citizen, had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 after being found guilty of ordering the deaths of 10 prison inmates between 2005-2006 in the central American country. But earlier this year Swiss judges ordered a retrial because his defence was compromised by irregularities in the original hearing. The new trial…
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Erwin Sperisen, the former head of Guatemala’s national police, is to be freed from prison in Switzerland ahead of his November trial.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.