Guatemala’s top court has annulled the historic trial of former U.S.-backed Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, sending the case back to the earliest stages. Ríos Montt was tried on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for the slaughter of more than 1,700 people in Guatemala’s Ixil region after he seized power in 1982. But as the trial neared a close last week, appeals judge Carol Patricia Flores ordered its suspension and nullified all proceedings dating back to November 2011. On Tuesday, Guatemeala’s Constitutional Court sided with Flores’ ruling and ordered the case transferred to her jurisdiction and restarted before the genocide charges were brought. Massacre survivors had attended Ríos Montt’s trial and offered testimony about the atrocities they witnessed. Click here to watch our interview with Allan Nairn about the Ríos Montt trial from Friday’s broadcast.