The three suspects in the 1982 murder of four Dutch IKON journalists in El Salvador have been found guilty. They are the former Minister of Defense and two high-ranking military officers.
The suspects are former Minister of Defense Guillermo García (91), former director Francisco Antonio Morán (93) of a special police service, and ex-colonel Mario Reyes Mena (85). They were not present at the trial. They will receive prison sentences of up to fifteen years, writes Diario El Salvador.
The journalists were Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag, and Joop Willemsen. Their relatives were also not present at the trial. They had come to El Salvador in April, but then the case was postponed because the lawyer needed a medical procedure.
Koster, Kuiper, Ter Laag, and Willemsen walked into an ambush by a special military unit in the town of Chalatengango in March 1982. They were shot dead by the soldiers.
The journalists were making a television report for broadcaster IKON about the bloody civil war in the Central American country, which is estimated to have cost 75,000 lives.
According to Salvadoran media, the individuals directly responsible for the ambush, the army leader and the commander of the unit involved, are no longer alive. One of the suspects now on trial, ex-colonel Reyes Mena, is said to have given the order for the massacre.
Morán and García were already arrested in 2022. Reyes Mena lives in the United States and must be extradited. The extradition request has been issued.