Salvadorans freed with conditional sentence for Bukele protest / Photo: Rudy QUIROZ - AFP
Salvadorans freed with conditional sentence for Bukele protest
A Salvadoran court on Wednesday sentenced an environmental lawyer and a community leader to three years in prison for protesting near President Nayib Bukele's home, but granted them a conditional release.
Lawyer Alejandro Henriquez and evangelical pastor Jose Angel Perez had been detained since May after the protest where they demanded that Bukele prevent the eviction of members of a peasant cooperative from private land.
They were found guilty on Wednesday of "aggressive resistance" and "public disorder," according to the ruling by the court in Santa Tecla, about 10 kilometers (six miles) west of the capital, San Salvador.
As a condition of their release, they must observe rules of conduct and avoid street protests. They will require judicial authorization to leave the country.
Amnesty International welcomed their release, but said in a statement "they should never have been deprived of their liberty or subjected to criminal proceedings for exercising their right to peaceful protest."
Human rights organizations accuse Bukele of using a state of emergency, which he imposed in El Salvador in 2022 as part of his crackdown against powerful gangs, to silence his critics.
Bukele's hardline approach on gangs has won plaudits from US President Donald Trump who has called him a model for Latin America.
R.Billman--VZ
