Iris Yassmin Barrios Aguilar
Iris Yassmin Barrios Aguilar
President of one of Guatemala’s two High Risk Court Tribunals

Iris Yassmin Barrios Aguilar is a judge and the president of one of Guatemala’s two High Risk Court Tribunals.[1] She was the presiding judge in the case of Efraín Ríos Montt, a former dictator of Guatemala.[1] In that trial Montt was found guilty of the genocide of indigenous Ixil Mayans; the verdict came in 2013.[2] The trial was the first time a national judiciary tried a former head of state for genocide in his home country.[1] However, on May 20, 2013, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala overturned the conviction, voiding all proceedings back to April 19 and ordering that the trial be "reset" to that point, pending a dispute over the recusal of judges. Officials have said that Ríos Montt's trial will resume in January 2015.[3]

Barrios received a 2014 International Women of Courage award.[4][5]

As of April 2014 her judicial authority was suspended for a year due to a complaint against her by a lawyer who was involved in the trial of the President and war criminal Efraín Ríos Montt.[6]

She was one of three judges, together with Gloria Porras and Erika Aifan, who have received support from the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. That court has ordered that these three should be given special protection. Aifan would also receive an International Women of Courage award in 2021.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Bios of 2014 Award Winners". state.gov. Archived from the original on 2014-03-07.
  2. ^ Mariano Castillo, CNN (10 May 2013). "Guatemala's Ríos Montt guilty of genocide". CNN. ((cite web)): |author= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ "Guatemala Rios Montt genocide trial to resume in 2015". BBC News. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
  4. ^ "US Honors International Women of Courage". VOA.
  5. ^ "FITE Celebrates 2014 Women of Courage, Honored by First Lady". JoinFITE – by Dermalogica. Archived from the original on 2014-09-06. Retrieved 2014-09-05.
  6. ^ "AWIU » Introducing Judge Iris Yassmin Barrios Aguilar of Guatemala, a 2014 International Woman of Courage". www.awiu.org. Archived from the original on 2015-01-03.
  7. ^ D. | AP, Sonia PÉrez. "3 female Guatemalan judges defend rule of law". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
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