Six former guerrillas, whose trial for a civil war-era homicide was criticised by fellow environmentalists as politicised, have been acquitted by a court docket in El Salvador.
Prosecutors had sought as much as 36 years in jail for the previous rebels of the hard-left Farabundo Martí Nationwide Liberation Entrance.
However the judges acquitted them “because of the statute of limitations” and ordered their fast launch, the defence lawyer Carolina Herrador mentioned after the listening to within the metropolis of Sensuntepeque. The court docket upheld arrest warrants for 2 different fugitive suspects, Herrador mentioned.
Prosecutors accused the eight former guerrillas, who had been arrested in January 2023, of killing a girl in 1989 as a result of they suspected she was a military informant. 5 of them had additionally been a part of an environmental marketing campaign for a ban on metallic mining that was launched in 2017, which activists concern the president, Nayib Bukele, desires to reverse.
“We by no means had any doubt about our innocence. At the moment we’ve got come out with our heads held excessive. We weren’t mistaken about our innocence,” Pedro Rivas, one of many environmentalists, mentioned. Supporters exterior the court docket shouted “Freedom!” and greeted the activists with hugs.
The United Nations particular rapporteur on the scenario of human rights defenders and different specialists expressed concern in a letter to Bukele’s authorities after the 2023 arrests that the case was an try and intimidate environmentalists.
The activists’ supporters argued that the velocity of the trial contrasted with the dearth of an investigation into massacres the army is accused of finishing up in the course of the 1979-1992 civil conflict.
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The case was motivated by “highly effective political and financial pursuits” focusing on opponents of mining, David Morales, of the nongovernmental organisation Cristosal, mentioned.
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