San Francisco Frontiers - Swiss supreme court upholds Guatemala ex-police chief sentence

In September 2024, Geneva's appeals court found Sperisen, who holds both Swiss and Guatemalan citizenship, guilty of "complicity" in the murder of detainees at the Pavon prison near Guatemala City.

"The appeal filed by Erwin Sperisen against his conviction has been rejected," the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland said in a statement.

The ruling comes after years of trials, retrials, appeals and overturned convictions, involving allegations of a plan for commandos to eliminate the most influential inmates when re-establishing control of the jail.

- Years of court cases -

Sperisen was Guatemala's civil police chief from July 2004 to March 2007.

"During this period, a police operation was carried out under his command to regain control of a prison, an event in which several inmates lost their lives," the supreme court said.

Nicknamed "The Viking" due to his hefty build and ginger beard, he resigned in 2007 and moved to Geneva, where his father Eduardo Sperisen-Yurt serves as Guatemala's ambassador to the World Trade Organization.

The former police chief, 56 this year, was arrested in 2012.

He was initially sentenced by a Geneva court in 2014 to life in prison, but in 2017, the Swiss supreme court ordered a retrial over what it deemed was the use of faulty evidence.

A Geneva appeals court sentenced him again in 2018, this time to 15 years behind bars.

The supreme court confirmed that verdict in 2019 but reversed its decision in 2023 after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) deemed that a judge in the Geneva case had given the appearance of a lack of impartiality.

In 2024, Geneva's appeals court found Sperisen guilty of complicity in the murder of seven detainees and sentenced him to 14 years.

- Appeal dismissed -

"The Federal Supreme Court has rejected Erwin Sperisen’s appeal, insofar as it was admissible," Thursday's statement said.

"In particular, it concluded that the appellant cannot rely on the fact that another individual -- who had also faced prosecution in connection with the events in Guatemala -- was acquitted in Austria."

In September, his lawyers launched another bid to have the case re-examined by the ECHR.

Z.Phillips--SFF