Judicial Ruling on the Assassination of Monsignor Gerardi

June 8, 2001, the judicial authorities established the existence of the offence of the extra-judicial execution of Monsignor Gerardi and held responsible, as the perpetrators, Colonel Byron Lima Estrada, Captain Byron Lima Oliva and the ex-army specialist Obdulio Villanueva and as accomplice, the priest Mario Orantes Najera.

The judicial ruling opened the course to legally try the members of the chain of command the active Presidential General Staff in April of 1998. The judgment, in first instance, was accepted with approval nationally as well as internationally and considered an important milestone in the strengthening process of the rule of law and the struggle against impunity.