Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt waited until closing arguments to speak in his own defense in his genocide trial in Guatemala City on Thursday . He denied he had any role as head of state in the atrocities the military carried out on indigenous Ixil Mayans during his brief rule from 1982 to 1983 . `` I never authorized , I never signed , I never proposed , I never ordered these attacks against a people , ethnicity or religion , '' Rios Montt said Thursday . Prosecutors have asked for 75-year sentences for the 86-year-old former leader and his intelligence chief , Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez . The landmark trial marks the first time a former head of state has been tried for genocide by his country 's own judicial system . Guatemala confronts a dark chapter . While Rios Montt was in power , the military used the threat of leftist rebels as a guise to exterminate Ixil villages accused of harboring insurgents , prosecutors argued . According to prosecutors , the campaign led to the genocide of more than 1,700 Ixil Mayans . During his first and only address to the three-judge panel , Rios Montt said that the prosecution 's contention that the chain of command places him at fault for the atrocities is false . He oversaw the day-to-day operations of the government , while the defense ministry had the final say over security matters , Rios Montt said . `` The head of state is nothing more than a public servant , '' he said . `` Each regional commander is responsible for what happens and what he lets happen in his territory . '' The former ruler said he does not accept the charges of genocide and crimes against humanity leveled against him . `` I was not a commander ; I was a head of state ! '' he shouted . Trial near completion . Closing arguments in the trial , which opened in March , are expected to conclude on Thursday . A verdict could come any moment after that . The first three weeks of the trial moved fast , with many Ixil Mayan witnesses testifying about rape , torture , killings and the razing of their villages . But a number of appeals and motions by the defense in several courts threatened to derail the process . At one point , a judge annulled the testimony in the trial . Legal wrangling over the insertion and ejection of lawyers on the defense side and whether certain evidence was admissible resulted in sometimes contradicting rulings from various courts . The trial was suspended at one point , as the country 's Constitutional Court and an appeals court began untangling the mess . The genocide trial was effectively stalled for nearly three weeks before the judges ruled they were in compliance with all of the rulings from the other courts . Facing legacy of civil war . Rios Montt came to power in a coup and led a military junta while Guatemala was in a bloody civil war between the army and leftist guerrillas . The war did not end until 1996 , leaving more than 200,000 people dead and 1 million as refugees . Prosecutors argued that Rios Montt was aware of the repressive strategies that the military was using against anyone suspected of being a guerrilla , such as killings , forced disappearances and kidnappings . His defense has argued that he never explicitly ordered the killings of the indigenous group .
Efrain Rios Montt of Guatemala addresses the court for the first time Thursday . He is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity . The trial has been delayed several times because of a lack of witnesses or evidence, but it was expected to begin in late September. It is the first time a former head of state has been tried for genocide in his own country .