Court rejects extradition to Spain in Jesuit murder case

There are reports in the Salvadoran press that El Salvador's Supreme Court will refuse to extradite former military officers to Spain in connection with the 1989 Jesuit murders.    At the moment the court's written ruling does not yet appear to be available, so there is some speculation about the reasoning of the Court.    A La Prensa Grafica report today indicated that the Court would not allow extradition of Colonel Guillermo Benavides because he had already been tried and sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1992.  Benavides was subsequently released after publication of the UN Truth Commission report which criticized the faulty trial which suppressed evidence of the responsibility of more senior officers.   There is a suggestion that Benavides might have to finish the rest of his sentence.

In a story in ContraPunto, human rights lawyer Benjamin Cuellar pointed to the recent overturning of El Salvador's amnesty law by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court.   According to Cuellar, some judges cynically opposed extradition so the accused can continue manipulating the weak judicial system in El Salvador, while other judges opposed extradition because they optimistically believe that El Salvador's judicial processes should now be allowed to work.