Francisco Palomo, the lawyer representing the former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt against charges of genocide, has been shot dead.

As reported by the Guardian, 63-year-old Palomo was shot at least a dozen times in the chest and thorax on Wednesday while he was driving through a residential neighborhood in Guatemala City.

So far no information regarding any suspects tied to the death of the former Constitutional Court judge have been offered.

Palomo defended Montt, a longtime friend, against charges of genocide and crimes against humanity relating to the deaths of 1,771 indigenous Ixil Maya Guatemalans during his 1982-83 regime.

It is estimated that 200,000 people died during Guatemala’s civil war which took place from 1960 to 1996. According to the United Nations more than 90 percent of human rights violations reported during the civil war happened between 1978 and 1984.

Although, Montt was sentenced to 80 years in prison back in 2013, that conviction was swiftly overturned and a new trial had been ordered. A retrial, which was set for this past January was indefinitely delayed after the defense successfully won a motion to have one of the three judges hearing the case be recused.

As reported by Al Jazeera, Juan Francisco Soto, the director of the Center for Legal Action for Human Rights, stated while preparing for Montt’s retrial: “We hope that with the repeated debate the Guatemalan justice system will show that it is capable of judging these grave crimes against humanity, and that justice will be served to the victims after more than 33 years."

Aside from defending Montt, Palomo also represented former interior minister Carlos Vielmann, a man who currently faces a case in Spain where he stands accused of extrajudicial killings that took place Guatemala.

Rios Montt's brief stint as dictator saw the deaths of around 10,000 people and the displacement of thousands more.