US Requests Salvadoran ExColonel's Extradition in Jesuit Deaths

News > Latin America US Requests Salvadoran ExColonel's Extradition in Jesuit Deaths Published 8 April 2015 (15 hours 23 minutes ago) 0+ We Recommend The crime ocurred 25 years ago during the Salvadorian civil war.  The U.S. government asked a North Carolina court Wednesday to approve the extradition of a Salvadoran former colonel and minister to Spain, for the murders of six Jesuit priests, including five Spaniards, in 1989. Inocente Montano, 72, was fulfilling a 21-month prison sentence in North Carolina for lying over his migration status, so he could remain in the United States and avoid a trial in his country. The U.S. Department of Justice then linked Montano with Spain’s 2011 request of extraditing 20 military officers responsible for the murders of Jesuit priests during the Salvadorian civil war (1980-1992). RELATED: Paraguay Asks Brazil to Extradite Mayor Linked to Murder​ Montano allegedly killed six Jesuits — five from Spain — and two Salvadorian women (a cook and her daughter) on Nov. 16, 1989, in the University of Central America (UCA). “The day before the assassinations, Montano participated in various meetings and, in the last one, one of the officials, in the presence of Montano, ordered to kill Father Ignacio Ellacuría without leaving witnesses,” stated the U.S. request to the North Carolina court. As the Vice-Minister of National Defense then, Montano was in charge of the state-owned radio that “broadcasted threats to the priest and his fellows a few days before the crime,” added the statement. RELATED: Guatemala Ex-President Freed from US Prison, Arrives Home “This is a huge step toward justice and individual criminal accountability,” lawyer Almudena Bernabéu, who represents the priests in the case via the Center of Justice and Accountability (CJA), said to EFF. The San Francisco-based center filed a lawsuit in 2008 before the Spanish court, along with the Association Pro Human Rights of Spain. If the North Carolina court accepts the extradition, Montano will face up to 30 years in prison over the charges of assassinations, terrorism and crime against humanity.  3 0 Tags El Salvador United States Spain civil war army state terror human rights Jesuits 

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