Guatemalan rights groups criticize order to free retired colonel convicted in bishop’s killing

Anger over freeing man convicted in bishop murder

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan human rights groups expressed outrage Thursday over a judge’s decision to release a former army colonel convicted of killing a prominent Roman Catholic bishop more than a decade ago.

The judge ordered retired Col. Byron Lima freed for good behavior after serving half his 20-year sentence for helping plot the murder of human rights crusader Bishop Juan Gerardi.

“It’s an embarrassment for Guatemala,” said Mario Minera, director of the Center of Legal Action for Human Rights.

Several other rights organizations also condemned Tuesday’s ruling.

Prison spokesman Rudy Esquivel said Lima has yet to be freed because the penitentiary has not received an official release order. Prosecutors can appeal, but so far they have been silent on the matter.

The 75-year-old Gerardi was bludgeoned to death with a concrete block at his seminary on April 26, 1998 — two days after he presented a report blaming the military for the overwhelming majority of the 200,000 deaths in Guatemala’s 1960-1996 civil war.

Also convicted in the murder were Lima’s son, an army captain; a former presidential guard; and a priest at the seminary.