Trial Erwin Sperisen sentenced to 14 years in prison for accessory to murder

The Geneva Criminal Court of Appeal and Revision has found Erwin Sperisen guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of seven prisoners in Guatemala. It sentenced the former head of the Guatemalan police to 14 years in prison on Thursday.

Sperisen was on trial in Geneva for the fourth time. He was accused of being involved in the killing of seven prisoners in 2006 as Guatemala's police chief. The case, which was accompanied by numerous appeals to the Federal Supreme Court, has been dragging on for more than twelve years.

Sperisen, now 54, fled to Switzerland with his family in 2007. He was arrested in Geneva in 2012. He was originally charged with ten murders. In addition to the seven prisoners who died in the mutiny at the Pavon prison, the Geneva public prosecutor's office also accused him of involvement in the execution of three men who had escaped from another Guatemalan prison.

Up to the ECHR

In the first two trials, Sperisen was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. When he stood trial for the third time in Geneva, he was only accused of accessory to murder. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

Sperisen spent more than eleven years in prison. He was released in October 2023. The Federal Supreme Court overturned his conviction in June 2023 following a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

The Strasbourg judges had come to the conclusion that the President of the Appeals Chamber of the Geneva Court of Appeal was biased at the trial in April 2018 and that Sperisen had not received a fair trial. This should now change in the current fourth trial.