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3w ago

Court Convicts Three Former Salvadoran Officers in 1982 Murder of Dutch Journalists

The verdict concludes a decades-long effort to hold security forces accountable, with a US-based defendant now facing extradition proceedings.

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Supporters watch El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele deliver a speech at an event, to mark the first year of his second term in office, in San Salvador, El Salvador June 1, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele arrives to deliver a speech at an event, to mark the first year of his second term in office, in San Salvador, El Salvador June 1, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
A boy holds an image of El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, as he waits him to arrive to deliver a speech at an event, to mark the first year of Bukele's second term in office, in San Salvador, El Salvador June 1, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

Overview

  • A jury in Chalatenango found Gen. José Guillermo García, Col. Francisco Morán and Col. Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena guilty of ambushing and killing four IKON TV journalists in June 1982.
  • None of the accused appeared at the closed-door trial and each received a 15-year prison sentence under El Salvador’s criminal code.
  • The victims—Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemson—were reporting alongside leftist rebels when they walked into a military ambush.
  • The case was reopened in 2018 after the Supreme Court declared the post-war amnesty law unconstitutional, ending decades of impunity.
  • In March, El Salvador’s Supreme Court approved the extradition of Reyes Mena, who remains in the United States as authorities pursue his return.