Salvadoran War Crime Suspect Held In United States

Posted August 24th, 2011 at 4:15 am (UTC-5)
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Federal agents in the Massachusetts have arrested a former Salvadoran military officer accused of participating in the killing of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador in 1989.

Inocente Orlando Montano was arrested on charges of making false statements on U.S. immigration forms.

Montano is one of 20 Salvadorans indicted in Spain earlier this year for the murders of the priests, their housekeeper and her teenaged daughter. The slayings occurred during El Salvador's 12-year civil war. Montano has denied involvement in the killings.

Montano is reported to have been living in Massachusetts under his own name for the last decade.

At Montano's court hearing in Boston Tuesday a federal judge ordered him held until electronic monitoring could be arranged.

The Spanish judge issued the indictment against Montano and the other Salvadorans under the principle of cross-border jurisdiction, which allows the prosecution of some crimes even though they were committed in another country. Spain can request Montano's extradition from the United States.