5 accused of killing nuns

Press, 15 February 1982, Page 6

5 accused of killing nuns

NZPA-Reuter - San Salvador President Jose Napoleon Duarte, of El Salvador, announced yesterday'that five former National Guardsmen had been formally charged with killing three American nuns, and a lay worker in December, 1980. Mr Duarte appeared unexpectedly in the Camino Real Hotel in San Salvador, where more than 100 foreign journalists stay, to make the announcement. The five men had been charged with aggravated homicide by a local judge in the town of ‘ Zacatecoluca. The men were being held under preventive detention. The judge found insufficient evidence to charge a sixth former Guardsman, but he would be a witness in the trial. Mr Duarte said.

The Salvadorean Government .'has been under considerable pressure from the United States to/resolve the case. Mr Duartd said he had a “moral conviction" that the five men charged were guilty of the crime. He was "absolutely convinced” that the former Guardsmen had not taken their orders from any higher authority. He said the men had been asked about that during lie-detector tests. Reports have said that high-level attempts were made to cover up the facts of the killings. The reports said one of the nuns might have angered the Government bv her support of the guerrilla cause.