A criminal complaint has been filed in the Spanish High Court in connection with the Salvadoran army’s Nov. 16, 1989 slaying of six Jesuit priests in one of the most notorious events of El Salvador’s civil war. Human rights lawyers filed the complaint on Nov. 13 against the Salvadoran president at the time, Alfredo Cristiani Burkard, and 14 former members of the military, for their roles in the killings of the priests and two female employees, and in the official cover-up that followed.
“We hope this case helps to reawaken the memory and the conscience of El Salvador’s people,” said Almudena Bernabeu, a lawyer for the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability, which filed the case along with the Spanish Association for Human Rights. The Spanish High Court must decide whether to press charges against the men and seek their extradition to Spain. (NYT, Nov. 13)
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