Salvadoran colonel remains jailed pending extradition case

RALEIGH, N.C. – A former Salvadoran colonel will stay in jail while a federal judge reviews efforts to extradite him on charges that he helped plot the 1989 killings of six Jesuit priests during the country’s civil war.

Judge Terrence Boyle filed an order Tuesday denying a request by Inocente Orlando Montano Morales to live with relatives while his case plays out. Spain wants to try Montano on terrorist murder charges because five slain priests were natives of that country.

A federal magistrate approved Montano’s extradition last year, but Boyle is reviewing a challenge by Montano.

Lawyers for the former El Salvador government official asked that he be freed from jail at least temporarily because of declining health.

Boyle wrote that the circumstances of the case don’t meet high legal standards for allowing a conditional release.