Erwin Sperisen faces trial in Geneva for the fourth time

Erwin Sperisen appears in court for the fourth time Keystone-SDA

Erwin Sperisen, former head of the Guatemalan National Civil Police, appeared in court in Geneva for the fourth time on Monday. The dual Swiss-Guatemalan national is charged with complicity in murder.

“We will be pleading for acquittal and, in the alternative, for the proceedings to be dropped,” Erwin Sperisen’s two lawyers, Giorgio Campa and Florian Baier, told the Geneva Court of Justice.

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Sperisen is accused by the Geneva Public Prosecutor’s Office of having given his consent to the execution of seven prisoners by a hit squad during the takeover of the Pavon prison in Guatemala in 2006. The prison had fallen under the control of drug traffickers.

The case has been going on for 12 years and has reached the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which ruled that Erwin Sperisen had not received a fair trial.

Sperisen, now 54, was arrested in Geneva in 2012.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

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