"Ex-Hudbay Minerals' security guard to be retried for murder in Guatemala", 15 Sep 2017

A former security guard for a Canadian-owned mining company accused of killing an Indigenous activist and leaving another paralyzed will have to face a new murder trial, an appeal court in Guatemala has ruled.

The ruling against Mynor Padilla, who was initially acquitted of murder and aggravated assault in April, comes amid an ongoing landmark lawsuit against Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals in Canada.

Padilla was charged in the 2009 death of Adolfo Ich and in the shooting of German Chub, who was left paralyzed at a Hudbay-owned mine…

Hudbay Minerals spokesman Scott Brubacher said Friday the guilty verdict appeared to have been reversed on procedural grounds, but the appeal court refused a prosecution request to substitute a guilty verdict.

The company has previously expressed its belief that Padilla was innocent. It has also insisted it was being falsely accused of displaying a pattern of human-rights and environmental abuses, and the claims against it were without merit…