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| Bishop Juan
Jose Gerardi, an activist clergyman and one of his killers, Guatemalan army captain, Byron Lima |
A
Guatemalan army captain sentenced to 20 years for the slaying of a Roman
Catholic bishop was charged with money laundering and organized crime for
allegedly building an illicit multimillion-dollar prison empire based on
threats and corruption, AP reports.
Prosecutors
said Wednesday that Byron Lima took money from other inmates in return for
favors such as prohibited cellphones and appliances, as well as special food
and conjugal visits.
The
U.N. International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala said national
prison system director Sergio Camargo received money from Lima. Camargo has
also been charged in the case. Both were expected to appear before a judge
later in the day.
Lima,
44, allegedly had campaign T-shirts printed for the 2011 election of President
Otto Perez Molina, who is also a former soldier.
A
U.N. commission employee who was not authorized to be quoted by name said
Wednesday that Lima "sold privileges" in prison. The U.N.-backed team
of police and prosecutors targets crime and corruption in Guatemala.
Prosecutors
said at least 12 other people were implicated in the case. Police raided
several homes of officials and associates of Lima in search of evidence.
Lima
was sentenced in 2001 along with three other men for the killing of Bishop Juan
Jose Gerardi, an activist clergyman who had accused Guatemala's military of
being responsible for the vast majority of deaths during the country's brutal
36-year civil war.
The
75-year-old Gerardi was bludgeoned to death with a concrete block at his
seminary on April 26, 1998, two days after he presented a report blaming the military
for most of the 200,000 deaths in the 1960-1996 civil war.
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In this Feb. 15, 2012 file photo shot through a
window, former Guatemalan Army Captain Byron Lima Oliva, accused and sentenced
in 2006 to 20 years in jail for the 1998 slaying of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi,
stares into the camera as he waits in a courtroom in Guatemala City.
Prosecutors said Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014 that Lima built an illicit business
empire in prison by extorting money from other inmates in return for favors
like allowing prohibited cellphones, and has been charged with money laundering
and organized crime. National prison system director Sergio Camargo also
received money from Lima. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)
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Also
convicted in the murder were Lima's father, a military figure himself; a former
presidential guard; and a priest at the seminary.
Authorities
began investigating Lima's prison activities last year.
Guatemalan
Interior Secretary Mauricio Lopez recently said that "Lima has been a
problem because I know everything that this man is running inside the
prison."
Lima
allegedly imposed order on other inmates, including work and exercise regimens,
and was allowed to leave jail on multiple occasions with the consent of prison
authorities.
From
behind bars, he posted photos on social media of visits from dignitaries
including politicians, journalists and TV personalities.
Lima
apparently had political ambitions for after prison. Online, he described his
ideology as "100 percent anticommunist, against the imperfections of
democracy, nationalist, progressive, promoter of the culture and identity of
his country, defender of his homeland from foreign invasion."
Those
aspirations resonated with some conservative political groups, to the alarm of
some in Guatemala.
"He
has the possibility to go free, get involved in politics and win some public
position, because he has the means to accomplish it and unfortunately Guatemala
has no conscience of people with a criminal background," said Nery
Rodenas, director of the Catholic church's Office of the Archdiocese.
"Definitely that would be a step back."
Lima would have been
eligible to apply for parole on Sept. 12, but the new charges could mean more
prison time.
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