In 2018, a special “high risk” Guatemalan court condemned four high-ranking military officials to up to 58 years in prison for their involvement in crimes against humanity and aggravated sexual assault against Emma Molina Theissen and the forced disappearance of her 14-year-old brother, Marco Antonio Molina Thiessen.
These crimes took place in 1981, at the height of the internal armed conflict that left 200,000 dead and 45,000 disappeared, including an estimated 5,000 children.
Justice was a long time coming. For the Molina Theissen family, and many other Guatemalan families who continue to search for truth in justice for civil-war-era crimes, the conviction –which followed a pursuit of justice that involved bringing the case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights— was a huge breakthrough.
