Prison director arrested over inmate deaths

A former prison director who is accused of participating in the killings of 10 inmates turned himself in to Guatemala’s police.

Interior Minister Carlos Menocal said police arrested former prison director Alejandro Giammattei inside the Honduran Embassy, where he sought refuge last week claiming he was the victim of a political persecution.

Giammattei is one of 19 people being sought in the killings of seven inmates in the Pavon prison following an uprising there in 2007, and the deaths of three inmates who escaped from the El Infiernito prison in 2005.

Those being sought also former Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann and former National Police Director Erwin Sperissen.