El Salvador convicts ex-military for 1982 killings of Dutch journalists
Former defence minister and two retired officers sentenced to 15 years in landmark ruling decades after civil war atrocity
A former defence minister in El Salvador and two retired colonels were found guilty Tuesday of the 1982 killings of four Dutch journalists during the country’s civil war, a lawyer for families of the deceased said.
A five-member jury sentenced the defendants, now in their 80s or 90s, to 15 years in prison after an 11-hour session on the first day of the trial, lawyer Pedro Cruz said outside the courthouse.
In a crime that shocked the world, Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemsen were killed while filming a television documentary.
More than 75,000 people were killed in El Salvador’s 1980-1992 civil war pitting the US-backed military against leftist guerillas.
The Dutch reporters worked for IKON TV, a Dutch channel founded by several churches.
The accused were General Jose Guillermo Garcia, 91, former police colonel Francisco Antonio Moran, 93, and ex-infantry brigade commander Mario Reyes Mena, 85.