El Salvador hands down a life sentence for the first time

The justice system of El Salvador issued for the first time a life sentence against a man convicted of murder, following a legal reform promoted by President Nayib Bukele, the prosecutor’s office reported this Friday.

Congress, dominated by the ruling party, eliminated the constitutional ban on life imprisonment in April, so it can now be applied to murderers, rapists, and terrorists.

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Until then, the maximum sentence was 60 years in prison, with sentence reduction mechanisms.

Then, Bukele had a regulation approved that extended the punishment to minors who commit murders, rapes, or participate in terrorism.

“This is the first life imprisonment sentence in the country’s history,” the attorney general’s office noted on X, while announcing the sentence issued by a San Salvador court against a 31-year-old man.

The defendant was found guilty of robbing and murdering a man last May, after hitting him with stones during an argument.

Bukele governs under a state of exception that represents the cornerstone of his war against gangs, which has led to the imprisonment of some 92,000 people and reduced crime to historic lows.

However, the right-wing leader is accused by United Nations experts and NGOs of human rights abuses that could constitute crimes against humanity.