In El Salvador, 400 gang members are sentenced to between 3 and 80 years in prison

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
• Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)

(CNN Spanish) - A court in San Salvador sentenced Wednesday afternoon to forty gang members with sentences of between three and eighty years in prison.

The Prosecutor's Office of El Salvador used as testimony the testimony of a gang member, who collaborated with the authorities in exchange for criminal benefits.

The witness, according to the judge, related the way in which different cases of extortion, illicit groups and the murder of three people and the conspiracy to kill four others were committed, among other crimes.

According to the investigation, this structure operated in the municipalities of Guazapa, Aguilares and El Paisnal, in the northern part of the department of San Salvador.

The court also released 92 other defendants because the witness did not relate them directly and because some had already been tried for the same cases and current Salvadoran legislation prohibits double prosecution.

The defendants followed the trial through the videoconferencing system but this Wednesday they were only represented by their lawyers.

According to the court, due to the number of defendants and the lack of space in the courtroom they were not transferred from the penal centers where they are held.

In December 2019, another court sentenced 373 gang members to terms of four to seventy-four years in prison, in a historic trial in El Salvador for the number of defendants.

MS-13