The retrial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt has been delayed. Rios Montt's lawyers argued one of the judges was biased and asked for her to be recused, further delaying the trial.

Rios Montt, 88, is being retried for genocide he allegedly ordered when he was dictator of the Central American nation between 1982 and 1983, according to The Associated Press. His attorneys asked for chief judge Jeannette Valdez to recuse herself. They consider her biased because she wrote a thesis on genocide.

Although Valdez first rejected the claim, the full panel of judges decided she ought to recuse herself from the trial.

"The defendant doubts the chief judge's impartiality, and the court majority accepts the challenge posed and orders to remit the actions to return immediately to the judicial panel," Valdez announced.

Rios Montt is accused of committing genocide against the indigenous Ixil Maya people. Under his orders, around 1,771 were killed.

The former dictator arrived at the courthouse in Guatemala City in a stretcher after being transported via ambulance, reports La Nacion. He arrived with his daughter Zury Rios and his doctor, Mario Bolaños.

Alongside the academic Armando de la Torre, attorney Karen Fischer and the wife of Rios Montt's attorney, Francisco Palomo, his daughter Zury criticized the nation's judicial system, reports Prensa Libre.

"Today it's General Rios Montt, tomorrow it'll be you, your child or relative," she said. "The degeneration of justice and the way it's applied worries me."

She added that the court was trying to try her father for his ideology, claiming courts would go after others because of their sexual orientation or race.

However, opponents of Rios Montt see his actions as an attempt to keep delaying the trial.

"It has now been demonstrated that genocide was committed in Guatemala, and we hope for another sentence," said Hector Reyes, attorney for the families of victims and survivors, according to TeleSur. "This is definitely a strategy to hold up the start of the process. We know that this case always will be permeated by some juridical actions that are going to be planted to delay it."

According to the BBC, Rios Montt and Gen. Jose Rodriguez, former intelligence chief, were tried in 2013. Rios Montt was found guilty of genocide and sentenced to 80 years in prison while Rodriguez was acquitted. However, Guatemala's highest court threw out the trial and ordered a retrial just weeks after, arguing Rios Montt did not have adequate representation.