Nine Salvadoran ex-soldiers face extradition over Jesuits killings

Nine Salvadoran ex-soldiers face extradition over Jesuits killings

2011-08-10 07:04:09 GMT+7 (ICT)

SAN SALVADOR (BNO NEWS) -- The El Salvador Supreme Court will soon decide whether to extradite nine retired military officers who have been accused of the killings of Jesuit priests in 1989 during the country's civil war, Salvadoran media outlet El Faro reported on Tuesday.

On November 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran Army allegedly killed Spanish national Ignacio Ellacuría who was dean of the Central America University (UCA). In addition, six other Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were also murdered. Five of the priests were Spaniards.

Spanish judge Eloy Velasco indicted 20 military officers for their roles in the slaughter in May, accusing them of eight counts of murder and one count of crimes against humanity. The nine suspects turned themselves in at a military base on Sunday afternoon as Salvadoran police were preparing to arrest them on an extradition order issued by Interpol.

The Defense Ministry subsequently handed the arrested suspects over to Salvadoran justice authorities to start the proper procedures against them. One of the suspects, former General René Emilio Ponce, died in May, but his case has not been dismissed yet because the Spanish court has not received his death certificate.

Spanish judge Eloy Velasco has criticized the previous trials against the soldiers in 1991 saying it was a fraud. The two prosecutors assigned to the case in 1991 later resigned and then claimed that the Attorney General had asked them not to investigate the responsibility of military high rank officers in the slaughter, El Faro reported.

The murders of the Jesuits priests were part of an estimated 75,000 people who were killed during the 12-year civil war between the military-led government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).

Human rights groups have welcomed the move by the nine former military men but said they hold out little hope that the Salvadoran Supreme Court will extradite them to Spain.

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