MADRID, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. and Spanish human rights groups Thursday accused former Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani of covering up crimes against humanity.
The lawsuit filed in Madrid involves the killing of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter nearly two decades ago during El Salvador's civil war. Most of the Jesuits were born in Spain.
In addition, 14 former Salvadoran military officers were accused of war crimes, murder and state terrorism in connection with the November 1989 massacre, CNN reported.
It has become one of the most notorious episodes of El Salvador's 12-year civil war that pitted leftist guerrillas against the U.S.-backed conservative government. Some 75,000 people died.
Two military officers were convicted of murder in 1991 in the deaths of the Jesuits but they were pardoned in 1993.
