Suspects in court for Dutch journalists' murders in El Savador 42 years after the fact

In El Salvador, the suspects in the murder of four Dutch journalists will finally stand trial 42 years after the fact. The former Salvadorian Minister of Defense and two army officers will appear in court, NOS reports.

Dutch journalists Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Joop Willemsen, and Hans ter Laag of former broadcaster IKON were in El Salvador in 1982 for a television report on the bloody civil war in the country, which raged between 1980 and 1992. On 17 March 1982, the Dutch journalists tried to enter guerrilla territory. They were ambushed by soldiers from the government army, who gunned them down.

The murders led to outrage in the Netherlands and years of unsuccessful attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice. In 1993, the commission investigating the murders concluded that Colonel Mario Reyes Mena was responsible for planning the ambush.

He was never charged, until now. Also standing trial is former Defense Minister Guillermo Garcia and the former director of a special police service, Francisco Antonio Morán. They are accused of giving the order that led to the ambush and subsequent murders of the four IKON journalists. Two other suspects in the case have died in the past 42 years.

Asdehu, the Salvadoran Association of Human Rights, called the start of the trial a “historic milestone in the struggle for justice for the victims and their families.”