El Salvador Court Orders Ex-President's Arrest Over 1981 Massacre

Alfredo Cristiani has denied all charges (File)

San Salvador, El Salvador:

A court in El Salvador has ordered the arrest of former president Alfredo Cristiani for an alleged cover-up related to a civil war-era massacre of about 1,000 people, a source linked to the case said Saturday.

The "provisional detention" of Cristiani, whose whereabouts are unknown, stems from an amnesty he declared after the 1981 killings as part of a "personal cover-up," according to a court resolution confirmed to AFP by Alejandro Diaz, a lawyer for victims' relatives.

The order, which also calls for the arrest of four Cristiani deputies, was issued by a court in the city of San Francisco Gotera, which is prosecuting several members of the Salvadoran military for the massacre.

Considered the largest in Latin America, the Mozote slaughter was perpetrated during the country's 1980-1992 civil war.

"We are interested in seeing that all those responsible be prosecuted," including those who hindered investigators, Diaz said.

According to the resolution, Cristiani and the others covered for those responsible by promoting a law -- passed in 1993 but revoked in 2016 -- that guaranteed "absolute impunity" to the authors of the massacres.

Priests killed

In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the Salvadoran state for its role in the killings.

From December 9 to 13, 1981, Salvadoran army units -- led by the US-trained Atlacatl counterinsurgency battalion -- launched an operation in Morazan department.

The government determined in 2017 that at least 988 people, including 558 children, were murdered in and near El Mozote for allegedly supporting the leftist rebels of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.

Overall, the Salvadoran conflict left more than 75,000 people dead and at least 7,000 missing.

In March 2022, another judge ordered Cristiani's arrest for allegedly taking part in planning the assassination of six Catholic priests and two others.

Cristiani has denied all charges.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Adblock test (Why?)

from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/rf9BNsh https://ift.tt/MYQH6fp
via IFTTT

Comments

US Defense Chief Austin To Make 'Full Recovery' From Cancer: Doctors

Austin, a 70-year-old career soldier, initially underwent minor surgery to treat cancer on December 22. Washington: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is likely to make a "full recovery" from prostate cancer and his prognosis is "excellent," two doctors said after he was seen at Walter Reed hospital for a follow-up appointment. Austin controversially kept US President Joe Biden in the dark about the cancer diagnosis for weeks, and did not inform either the commander-in-chief or Congress until days after he was hospitalized on January 1 for complications from his treatment. "Secretary Austin was seen today at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a scheduled post-prostatectomy surveillance appointment," the doctors said in a statement released by the Pentagon. "He continues to recover well and is expected to make a full recovery. Secretary Austin's prostate cancer was treated early and effectively, and his prognosis is excellent,...

North Korea Says It Tested New Strategic Cruise Missile

North Korea test-fired a new generation of strategic cruise missile on Wednesday. (Representational) Seoul: North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state. Hours later, North Korea appeared to confirm the firing, saying it had carried out its first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles it is developing, the Pulhwasal-3-31. Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an "underwater nuclear weapon system" and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile. "Our military detected several cruise missiles launched by North Korea towards the Yellow Sea at around 7:00 am today," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions against Pyongyang. Cruise...

US "Deplores" Israeli Attack On UN Training Center In Gaza

More than 25,000 people have been killed in Gaza since war began against Hamas. Washington: The United States was concerned by an Israeli attack on a U.N. training center sheltering displaced people in Gaza's Khan Younis on Wednesday, Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said, repeating Washington's calls for protection of civilians, humanitarian workers and aid facilities. "We deplore today's attack on the U.N.'s Khan Younis training center," Patel told a news briefing, calling it "incredibly concerning." The Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza said that nine Palestinians were killed and 75 were injured when two tank rounds hit the building that was sheltering around 800 people in the southern Gaza Strip. "Civilians must be protected, and the protected nature of UN facilities must be respected, and humanitarian workers must be protected so that they can continue providing civilians with the life-saving humanitarian assistance...

டெக் மந்த்ரா

Search This Blog