_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Guatemala_______________
Judge reports death threats
New charges in case of bishop’s death
A judge in the trial that resulted in the conviction of three soldiers and a priest for conspiring to kill a Catholic bishop says he is receiving death threats.
“I have received many death threats since the sentence,” Judge Jose Eduardo Cojulun told Radio Fabulosa. “But I am not going to be intimidated. I am not going to leave the country.” The judge led a three-judge panel that convicted Col. Disrael Lima, his son, Capt. Byron Lima, Sgt. Obdulio Villanueva, and Father Mario Orantes of the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi Conedera. They were sentenced to 20 to 30 years in prison.
Death threats have been a standard part of the investigation into the bishop’s death. Five other investigators, prosecutors, and judges have recused themselves from the case or fled the country since the bishop’s murder, citing death threats against themselves and their families. Just before the start of the trial in March, another judge on the panel, Judge Yasmin Barrios, said someone threw two grenades at her home. No one was injured in the attack.
Judge Cojulun criticized President Alfonso Portillo for a speech in which the president claimed that the court’s verdict was an achievement of his government. “He should not tip someone else’s hat,” Cojulun said. “We judges are the ones who risk our skins in cases where there are threats of retaliation.”
Back to Catholic World Report August/September 2001 Table of Contents