Supreme court overturns post civil-war amnesty law

The Supreme Court in El Salvador has struck down as unconstitutional an amnesty law dating back to the end of the country’s civil war, writes Martha Pskowski.

The law, passed by the Arena Party in 1993, protected high-level government officials from prosecution for alleged war crimes and other human rights violations committed during the civil war which lasted from 1980 to 1992. The court decision, passed down on 13 July, means that the perpetrators of such atrocities may now be brought to court.

The judges ruled that aspects of the amnesty violated the constitution and denied people  access to justice and compensation for war crimes.

The civil war killed 75,000 people and left 8,000 missing. The Catholic Church was among the targets of government forces, who felt threatened by its teaching. Among the cases that may be now be further investigated are the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was shot dead by a right-wing death squad as he celebrated Mass in March 1980, and the killing of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in 1989. A politician and a number of military officers may now face proceedings over the 1989 killings. In February 2015, Pope Francis ruled that Archbishop Romero had died as a martyr, paving the way for his beatification.