The retrial of Guatemala's former military ruler over charges of genocide has been suspended before proceedings had even started this week, after a motion to change judges was successfully passed.

Rios Montt, Guatemala's 88-year-old former ruler, is accused of masterminding the massacre of 1,771 Ixil Maya Indians in the early 1980s. He was initially found guilty of genocide in 2013, after he became the first head of state to face genocide charges in his own country. However, the conviction was overturned just weeks later and a retrial scheduled for 2015.

The retrial has been halted after Montt's lawyers argued judge Jeannette Valdez's master's thesis on genocide meant she was impartial. She had called it "a strategy to obstruct" the proceedings but the other two judges on the panel accepted the motion, causing the postponement.

Human Rights Watch's Americas executive director, Jose Miguel Vivanco, said,

“[It] is not only extremely frustrating but also is revealing of the lack of solid independence of the judiciary in Guatemala, which is clearly sensitive to political pressure... Their record has been quite unimpressive particularly regarding efforts to nullify and stop the criminal prosecution of this dictator.”