Impression copyright
EPA
The ex-colonel battled for a long time from extradition to Spain from the US
A previous military services commander in El Salvador, Inocente Montano, has gone on trial in Madrid accused of ordering the murder of 6 Jesuit priests in 1989.
He was by itself in the dock on Monday. A male suspected of taking pictures the priests, ex-Lt René Yusshy Mendoza, is serving to prosecutors as a witness now.
Two Salvadorean females – a housekeeper and her daughter – had been also murdered.
5 of the Jesuit clergymen have been Spanish. Salvadorean troops have been battling leftist rebels at the time.
Prosecutors think ex-Col Inocente Montano, a previous deputy defence minister, was aspect of a considerably-appropriate group in the military dependable for atrocities and opposed to any peace deal with the Farabundo Marti Liberation Entrance (FMLN).
Media playback is unsupported on your system
He was extradited from the US in November 2017, obtaining been charged, alongside with other Salvadorean officers, by a Spanish choose in 2011. He has denied wrongdoing.
He had moved to the US in 2002 and was in jail there for immigration fraud and perjury when the Spanish extradition ask for was produced.
A person of the murdered monks, Ignacio Ellacuria, was rector of the Central American College (UCA) in the funds San Salvador and a primary determine in the liberation theology movement, which achieved out to the poor of Latin The us.
The monks and the two girls were dragged from their beds early on 16 November, 1989, and murdered on the college campus.
In 1989 the civil war experienced escalated into road combating involving the FMLN rebels and the army in San Salvador.
- Salvadorean war crimes suspect extradited
- El Salvador nation profile
Prosecutors are calling for 150 a long time in jail for Mr Montano, accusing him of getting “given the direct purchase to assassinate the Jesuits”.
He is anticipated to make a statement in court on Wednesday.
Spain’s Efe news company studies that Mr Yusshy, a single of the alleged killers, has expressed regret and is offering proof to prosecutors in the circumstance. He followed Monday’s proceedings from the El Salvador consulate and is to testify on 7 July.
In accordance to a 1993 UN Truth Fee report, extra than 75,000 persons had been killed through the 12-year civil war.
A UN-brokered peace approach ended the conflict in 1992, but a 1993 amnesty regulation meant that civil-war period human rights violations went unpunished.
El Salvador refused to hand about to Spain other officers accused about the 1989 murder plot.
