MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan court has absolved the late dictator Efrain Rios Montt's former intelligence chief of 1980s civil war rights abuses for a second time.
In a 2-1 decision, the tribunal ruled late Wednesday that Jose Mauricio Rodriguez will not see prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.
It found that the abuses were committed by the military, but it was not proven that Rodriguez gave the commands.
Prosecutors had argued that the 73-year-old ex-military officer knew about and ordered the killings of 1,771 indigenous Ixil Guatemalans by the army during Rios Montt's 1982-1983 regime.
Rodriguez Sanchez proclaimed his innocence.
Rios Montt died April 1 of a heart condition while under house arrest.
According to a U.N. truth commission, about 245,000 people were killed or disappeared during Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war.
