Spanish court indicts 20 Salvadoran military officials

Spain's National Court issued an arrest warrant Monday for 20 Salvadoran military officials in connection with the slayings of six priests, their housekeeper and her daughter more than two decades ago.

The event, known as the "Jesuit Massacre," became one of the most notorious episodes of El Salvador's bloody 12-year civil war, which pitted leftist guerrillas against the U.S.-backed conservative government.

In an indictment issued Monday, Judge Eloy Velasco Nunez accused the officials -- including El Salvador's former defense minister -- of murder, terrorism and crimes against humanity. He said a trial in El Salvador was flawed and failed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

"That judicial process was a defective and widely criticized process that ended with two forced convictions and acquittals even of confessed killers," Velasco wrote.

Two military officers were convicted of murder in 1991, but were pardoned in 1993 under an amnesty law approved by El Salvador's National Assembly.

The eight victims of the November 1989 killings "were one of at least 75,000 unarmed civilians who died in this war, which was much more violent than the better known conflicts in Chile and Argentina," Velasco wrote. "It is estimated that 85% of the deaths can be attributed to the army and security forces."

~ more... ~