Ex-colonel denies role in priests' slayings in El Salvador
ARITZ PARRA, Associated Press
Updated 11:18 am, Monday, December 4, 2017
MADRID (AP) — Lawyers say a former Salvadoran colonel has denied being involved in the massacre of five Spanish priests in El Salvador 28 years ago.
Two lawyers familiar with the proceedings said Inocente Orlando Montano told a Spanish National Court judge Monday that no mention of plans to assassinate the priests was made during a Nov. 15, 1989 meeting he attended.
Father Ignacio Ellacuria and five other Jesuit priests were killed the next day along with their housekeeper and her daughter. Ellacuria was mediating talks at the time to end the Salvadoran civil war.
The lawyers spoke anonymously in line with court rules.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Ex-colonel-denies-role-in-priests-slayings-in-El-12403968.php
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MURDER OF JESUIT PRIESTS AND CIVILIANS IN EL SALVADOR
THE JESUITS MASSACRE CASE
On the morning of November 16, 1989, an elite battalion of the Salvadoran Army entered the grounds of the Jesuit University of Central America, with orders to kill Father Ignacio Ellacuría—an outspoken critic of the Salvadoran military dictatorship—and leave no witnesses. When it was all over, the soldiers had killed six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her daughter in cold blood. The Jesuits Massacre is one of most notorious crimes of El Salvador’s 12-year civil war, which left over 75,000 people dead.
On November 13, 2008, CJA and the Spanish Association for Human Rights filed criminal charges in Spain against the former President of El Salvador and 19 former members of the military for the massacre. The Spanish court issued indictments against all accused. All but one of the defendants live in El Salvador — Colonel Inocente Montano, the former Vice Minister of Public Security who had been living outside of Boston, working as a candy-maker. As a result of the indictment in Spain and CJA’s advocacy, the Department of Homeland Security filed immigration fraud charges against Montano and he was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
As his release date neared in April 2015, pursuant to the Spanish National Court’s extradition request, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint for Montano’s extradition to Spain. On February 5, 2016, the court ruled that Montano is eligible for extradition. On August 21, 2017, a North Carolina District Court let stand the court’s decision in denying Montano’s habeas corpus petition challenging his detention. Montano may appeal the decision to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Any final extradition order must be signed by the Secretary of State.
The same day as the initial decision regarding Montano’s eligibility for extradition from the U.S., the Salvadoran national police arrested four defendants in CJA’s criminal trial. The Court ruled against extraditing the four defendants under arrest to Spain because they had been previously tried for the Jesuits Massacre. The court reinstated the status quo prior to the amnesty law. Leaving one officer, Colonel Guillermo Benavides, in prison having been previously convicted, and three soldiers freed having been previously acquitted.
More:
http://cja.org/what-we-do/litigation/the-jesuits-massacre-case/
