During the Civil War in Central American countries on Tuesday night, four Dutch journalists killed four Dutch journalists in 1982 and three former El Salvadorian officers were sentenced to a five-person jury conviction. They were sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Oscar Pérez, attorney for Comunicandonos, a foundation representing the family of the victim, said five women began to rule on a murder case of three men in a lightning trial in the northern city of Chalatenango on Tuesday morning. Perez said prosecutors have requested a minimum sentence of at least 15 years for the three.
The convictions were former Defense Minister José Guillermo García, 91, former Chief of Police of the Ministry of Finance, Francisco Morán, 93, and Colonel Mario Adalberto Reyes, 85, who was a former Army commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade of Chalatenango.
García and Morán are among the guards at a private hospital in San Salvador, while Reyes Mena lives in the United States. In March, the Supreme Court in El Salvador ordered the process of extradition to get him back.
Perez said that in addition to the convictions of former senior officials, the judge condemned the government for delaying judicial justice and ordered Armed Forces President Nayib Bukele to apologize to the victims.
Dutch TV reporters - Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Hans Ter Laag and Joop Willemson are linked to the left rebels and plan to report a few days behind on the rebel line. But the El Salvador soldiers armed assault rifles and machine guns, ambushing them and the guerrillas.
García was expelled from the United States in 2016 after a U.S. judge declared responsibility for serious human rights violations in the early stages of the war between the army and the left-wing Farabundo Martí Martí Martí National Liberation Front guerrillas.
The Supreme Court reopened its prosecutions against these people in 2018 after an unconstitutional general amnesty declared after the 1980-1992 war.
It moved slowly, but in March 2022, victims and relatives of the EU and representatives of the EU demanded the killing of those responsible for the killing of Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Hans Ter Laag and Joop Willemson.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp welcomes the conviction.
"This is a big moment in a fight against impunity and justice for four Dutch journalists and their close relatives," Veldkamp said in a message on social media.
He added: "Thanks to the authorities of El Salvador and to all those who worked tirelessly in this case."
According to the Foundation, Jan Kuiper died two days before his 40th birthday, and his colleague Hans Ter Laag wrote a letter to his girlfriend shortly before the deadly trip: "Dear, this Wednesday, the guerrillas will take us to the liberated area. We will head to Chalatenango, which is a very dangerous trip. It is a very dangerous trip.
Koos Koster studied theology at university and published several books on international politics. The tombstones on his cemetery feature images made by his sister, depicting a biblical story next to the motto: “Survival Forced.”
She said Joop Willensen plans to marry his long-time partner, Yata Matsuzaki, after heading to El Salvador.
The United Nations Commission on Truth in El Salvador was part of an unpromoted peace agreement in 1992, and concluded that there was clear evidence that the killing was the result of a Reyes Mena ambush in Reyes, based on the knowledge of other officials, based on an intelligence report that warned journalists about their existence.
Other military members, including General Raphael Flores Lima and Sgt. Mario Canizales Espinoza is also charged with participation but died. Canizales allegedly led a patrol to carry out a journalist massacre.
Juan Carlos Sánchez of the NGO Mesa Contra La Impunidad called the trial a "prior step that the victim has been waiting for 40 years".
During the El Salvador Civil War, an estimated 75,000 civilians were killed, mainly by U.S.-backed government security forces.
The trial is closed to the public.