"This Thursday, July 3, 2025, the Court of First Instance of Dulce Nombre de María formally handed down the conviction of General José Guillermo García, Colonel Francisco Antonio Morán, and Colonel Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena, found guilty of ordering the murders of four Dutch journalists on March 17, 1982, during the Salvadoran civil war.
According to the prosecution, each of them was sentenced to 15 years in prison for each of the murdered journalists: Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Joop Willemsem, and Hans ter Laag. This made a total of 60 years in prison for each soldier, but they will only serve half of that, 30.
Gustavo Huezo, one of the prosecuting attorneys in the case, explained that the sentence was reduced because the case is based on the Salvadoran Penal Code of 1974, which established that the sentence cannot exceed 30 years."
