11th Circuit throws out $55 million verdict against Salvadoran generals News
11th Circuit throws out $55 million verdict against Salvadoran generals

[JURIST] The US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] has reversed a $54.6 million verdict against two retired Salvadoran generals for allegedly allowing torture and other abuses during a 12-year civil war in El Salvador. The court ruled Monday that the three victims had not proven circumstances that prevented them from filing the suit within the 10-year statute of limitations under the Torture Victim Protection Act [text] of 1991, which allowed US courts to decide cases involving torture in other countries. A jury convicted Salvadoran Gens. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova and Jose Guillermo Garcia, both of whom now live in the US, for allowing torture and other human rights violations during the civil war that ended in 1992. Read the court's opinion [text, PDF]. AP has more.