Ex-Salvadoran colonel gets 133 years in jail for murdering five Spanish Jesuit priests

Spain’s top criminal court said Montano was responsible for the killings which took place in 1989 during the Central American nation’s civil war

The suffering of the Jesuit fathers, of the relatives and of all the Salvadoran people has been recognised, the victims’ lawyer said

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Former Salvadoran colonel Inocente Orlando Montano Morales. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:36pm, 11 Sep 2020Updated: 5:41am, 12 Sep 2020

A Spanish court on Friday sentenced a former Salvadoran colonel to 133 years in prison for murdering five Spanish Jesuit priests in 1989 during the Central American nation’s civil war.

Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, 77, was found guilty of “terrorist murder” for the killings which took place in November 1989 when the Jesuits were acting as a mediator to try to end the civil war between the government and FMLN guerillas.

Spain’s top criminal court said he was responsible for eight murders – six Jesuits, one of whom was Salvadoran, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter – but could only sentence him on the basis of five as it was on those grounds that he was extradited from the United States.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, lawyer Manuel Olle said the victims’ relatives were “very satisfied” with the long-awaited ruling which established the truth about the past.

“At last we see justice has been done, impunity has been overcome, and the instigators who for so many years have prevented the truth from being known, have been unmasked,” he said.

“The suffering of the Jesuit fathers, of the relatives and of all the Salvadoran people has been recognised.”