Judge clears way for extradition of ex-Salvadoran colonel
RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge cleared the way Monday for a former colonel in El Salvador’s military to be sent to Spain to face charges that he helped plot the notorious killings of six priests during his country’s civil war.
Judge Terrence Boyle ruled that a lower-level magistrate judge was correct last year in approving the extradition of Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, who is charged with “terrorist murder” in the 1989 killings of the Jesuit priests, most of whom were from Spain.
A human rights lawyer who helped persuade Spanish authorities to prosecute Montano applauded.
“The U.S. government has a great interest in co-operating with Spain on an accusation of terrorist murder,” said Patty Blum, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “This is all about international co-operation.”