Supreme Court of El Salvador orders the closing of criminal proceedings for the murder of Jesuit priests | CNN

Salvadoran ex-colonel convicted of murder of Jesuits 3:00

(CNN Spanish) -

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice annulled the criminal proceedings against the alleged intellectual authors of the murder of 6 Jesuit priests and 2 of their collaborators, which occurred on November 16, 1989, during the civil war in The Savior.

The magistrates declare the "absolute nullity" of the criminal process and leave firm "the definitive dismissals and the legal effects that were originally issued in favor of the defendants in the present process for reasons of limitation", as read in the sentence issued last September 8 but made public on Thursday and accessed by CNN.

“We are happy because after a 10-year struggle they agree with us in everything.

It is a prescribed and tried case, "Lizar Quintanilla, a lawyer for the military, told CNN.

In the judgment, the Chamber indicates that on December 12, 2000, the Third Peace Court ordered the definitive dismissal at the initial hearing, considering that the criminal action had prescribed since more than 10 years had passed since the crime at the time the The Attorney General of El Salvador presented the accusation, the maximum limit established by the legislation in the Central American country to prosecute a crime.

• Military detained in connection with the 1989 massacre of Jesuit priests

The judicial process for the murder of the priests

The private accusers appealed and the Third Criminal Chamber confirmed the dismissal on January 26, 2001. The Human Rights Institute of the Central American University (Idhuca) filed an amparo appeal against the then Attorney General for requesting the dismissal in favor of of the defendants, but the Constitutional Chamber rejected the claim on December 23, 2003, for which reason the Criminal Chamber interprets that the dismissal for reasons of limitation was final.

"There was and does not exist in the Criminal Procedure Code any recourse or request that allows reopening a process against a defendant for the same facts, when the final dismissal has acquired a final status", the magistrates say in the sentence.

"After a corrupt dismissal of those accused of killing the Jesuits, now there is a confirmation of the validity of the corrupt act of the past in the Criminal Chamber," the Jesuit priest, José María Tojeira, former rector of the UCA, said on Twitter. and current director of Idhuca.

"The Criminal Chamber orders that those identified as the masterminds of the UCA massacre not be investigated," said Arnau Baulenas, a lawyer for the UCA.

Baulenas considers that the judgment of the Criminal Chamber "disrespects what was decided by the Constitutional Chamber on the Amnesty Law", which in July 2016 declared that law unconstitutional, which prevented the promotion of cases that occurred during the armed conflict.

In the ruling, the magistrates classify the massacre as "repudiable" but they point out that "no matter how repudiable the criminal acts may be, this does not enable the entities that prosecute the crime to violate constitutional principles and guarantees."

The case

Juan Orlando Zepeda, Francisco Elena Fuentes, Rafael Humberto Larios, Juan Rafael Bustillo, Inocente Orlando Montano, former President Alfredo Felix Cristiani (1989-1994) and the late Rene Emilio Ponce were singled out for this case.

For the murder of the Jesuits there are 2 people in prison.

One is retired Colonel Guillermo Alfredo Benavides, sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1992, but released after the approval of the Amnesty Law in 1993. On February 5, 2016, he was arrested by order of the Spanish judge Eloy Velasco.

Following the declaration of unconstitutionality of the Amnesty Law in July 2016, a court upheld his conviction and he is being held in a prison in El Salvador.

Meanwhile Orlando Inocente Montano was sentenced last September in Spain to 133 years and 4 months in prison for the "terrorist murder" of 5 Spanish Jesuit priests.

The Jesuit priests were assassinated during the guerrilla offensive "Hasta el Tope" by an elite group of the army, in the facilities of the Central American University, according to the report of the Truth Commission, prepared in 1993, with the support of the United Nations. United.

The victims were 5 Spanish priests: Ignacio Ellacuría, Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martín-Baró, Amando López and Juan Ramón Moreno.

In addition to 3 Salvadorans, the priest, Joaquín López and 2 of his collaborators, Elba and her daughter Celina Ramos.