Geneva, Sept. 28, (dpa/GNA) – A Swiss court on Thursday ruled that a former Guatemalan police boss jailed for 15 years over his role in a deadly police operation must be freed.
It was reacting to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
That court had ruled in June in favour of the former police chief, Erwin Sperisen, a Swiss-Guatemalan dual national. He had claimed that his right to an impartial trial had been violated.
In 2018, an appeals court had sentenced Sperisen to 15 years in prison over a deadly police operation in 2006 that was meant to regain control over Guatemala’s Pavón Prison, where inmates had created their own power structures.
He fled to Switzerland one year after the prison raid and was arrested in 2012.
The European Court of Justice considered statements made by the judge before the trial to be problematic. It found that Sperisen was justified in fearing that the judge had already formed an opinion on the question of his guilt.
GNA