Soldiers to Stand Trial in Murder of Jesuit Priests

A Salvadoran judge on Saturday ordered nine soldiers to stand trial for the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter.

Court spokesman Mario Gonzalez said Judge Ricardo Zamora ruled that Col. Guillermo Benavides, three lieutenants and four soldiers will be tried on eight counts of murder as well as charges of terrorism. A ninth soldier who deserted will be tried in absentia.

Zamora spent more than a year investigating, and court sources said it is unlikely--but not impossible--that anyone else will be implicated in the massacre.

The Society of Jesus, the local Roman Catholic Church leadership and members of the U.S. Congress who have been monitoring the investigation contend that Benavides is not the only ranking officer behind the killings.

Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) has accused members of the Salvadoran army high command of obstructing the investigation, covering up evidence and lying in testimony before Zamora.

Solving the murders was one of the conditions set by the United States for unfreezing military aid withheld in September, partly in protest of human rights abuses by the U.S.-backed armed forces.

The State Department said Friday it will speed up the release of $48.1 million in military aid to the Salvadoran government this year and next, to help counter an 18-day-old offensive by leftist rebels.

During Zamora’s investigation, several defendants testified that a 40-man unit raided the priests’ residence on the campus of the Jesuit-run University of Central America in San Salvador before dawn on Nov. 16, 1989. The soldiers murdered the six priest-professors, as well as their housekeeper and her 15-year-old daughter, according to testimony.

Two of the lieutenants accused in the case have testified that Benavides ordered the murders and the elimination of any witnesses. Benavides denies the charges.

Admirers of the slain priests say they were intellectuals who sought a peaceful end to the country’s 11-year civil war and to the deep-rooted social inequalities they consider to be its cause.