The murderers of four Dutch IKON journalists in El Salvador in 1982 must serve thirty years in prison. Due to miscommunication, it initially appeared that the perpetrators had to serve fifteen years.
The sentence of fifteen years in prison applies per murder, the judge clarified in the written verdict published on Thursday. For four murders, that in principle means a sentence of sixty years. But in 1982, the maximum possible prison sentence in El Salvador was thirty years. Therefore, the sentence is limited to that length.
It will matter little to those convicted, as they are already of advanced age. Former Defense Minister Guillermo García is 91 years old, the former director of a special police service, Francisco Antonio Morán, is 93 years old, and former Colonel Mario Reyes Mena is 85 years old.
García and Mena are being held in private hospitals due to their health condition. Reyes Mena lives in the United States. El Salvador has made an extradition request to the American authorities.
Journalists Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag, and Joop Willemsen walked into an ambush by a special military unit in March 1982. They were shot dead by the soldiers.
The journalists from broadcaster IKON were in El Salvador for a television report about the bloody civil war in the country. An estimated 75,000 people died in that war.
The directly responsible parties for the ambush, the army leader and the commander of the unit involved, are reportedly no longer alive. Reyes Mena, who has been convicted, is said to have given the order for the executions.