 Image copyright AP Image caption Gen Rios Montt has denied ordering any attacks against any of Guatemala's indigenous groups 
 
 Guatemala's top court has thrown out the conviction for genocide and crimes against humanity of former military leader Efrain Rios Montt. A three-judge panel convicted Rios Montt, 86, on May 10 of genocide in the slaughter of more than 1,700 Ixil Maya in the early 1980s, some of the bloodiest years of Guatemala’s long civil war and the period during which he served as de facto president of the country. Rios Montt was sentenced to 80 years in prison, but that sentence was vacated in the Monday ruling. Human rights group Amnesty International said it was a "devastating blow for the victims of the serious human rights violations committed during the conflict".
– Guatemala's highest court has chucked out the historic genocide conviction of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt. The court overturned the conviction—which brought an 80-year sentence for the 86-year-old former military strongman—and ordered for his trial to be rewound to April 19, when there was a dispute between two judges, the BBC reports. Montt, the first former leader to be found guilty of genocide by a tribunal in his own country, was found guilty of ordering the deaths of 1,700 Ixil Maya in the early 1980s, but weeks of his trial, including harrowing testimony from survivors, will now have to be redone, the Los Angeles Times reports. Montt, who maintains his innocence, is now expected to leave the military hospital where he is being held to return home under house arrest.