Former Guatemala dictator found guilty of genocide

[NBCNews]

Jorge Dan Lopez / ReutersFormer Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt attends the last session of his genocide trial at the Supreme Court of Justice in Guatemala City on May 10, 2013. By The Associated PressA Guatemalan court has convicted former dictator Efrain Rios Montt on  charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, sentencing him to 80  years in prison.

The 86-year-old former general is the first former Latin American leader ever found guilty of such a charge.

A  three-judge tribunal issued the verdict after the nearly two-month  trial in which dozens of victims testified about horrific atrocities.

Prosecutors  said Rios Montt must have had knowledge of the massacres of Mayan  Indians when he ruled Guatemala from March 1982 to August 1983 at the  height of the country's 36-year civil war.

Rios Montt said he never knew of or ordered the massacres while in power.

The war between the government and leftist rebels cost more than 200,000 lives and ended in peace accords in 1996.