Washington, Feb 5 (EFE).– A U.S. district judge on Friday approved the extradition to Spain of a retired Salvadoran army officer wanted for the 1989 murders of five Spanish Jesuit priests in the Central American nation, federal prosecutor John A. Capin told EFE.

Judge Kimberly A. Swank ruled that treaties between the United States and Spain favored the extradition of Col. Inocente Orlando Montano, 72, requested since 2011 by Spanish National Court Judge Eloy Velasco.

Montano could, however, appeal the ruling, Capin said.

Montano, who was imprisoned in North Carolina, will now be in the hands of the U.S. Marshals service, which will hold him in custody until the final approval by the State Department, the judge ruled.

Montano successfully applied in 2002 for Temporary Protected Status, a benefit the U.S. government extends to migrants from countries battered by natural disasters or internal conflict.

Documents presented in court showed he concealed his Salvadoran military service on the initial TPS application and on subsequent applications for renewal.

U.S. authorities later learned that Montano had been linked to a number of atrocities during El Salvador’s 1980-1992 civil war, including the massacre of the Jesuits.

The Justice Department says Montano was present at a meeting prior to the killings where one officer ordered the assassination of one of the Jesuits, the Rev. Ignacio Ellacuria, and the elimination of any witnesses.

The following day, Nov. 16, 1989, Salvadoran soldiers invaded the Central American University campus in San Salvador and killed then-chancellor Ellacuria and four other Spanish priests: Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Amando Lopez and Juan Ramon Moreno, along with Salvadoran Jesuit Joaquin Lopez.

Also slain were a cook and her 16-year-old daughter.

Montano, then El Salvador’s deputy defense minister, controlled an official radio station that broadcast threats against Ellacuria and his colleagues in the days leading up to the murders, according to the Justice Department.

In his decision, the judge said the extradition should proceed because “the government’s evidence shows (Montano) was a decision-maker and member of a group of officers who collectively ordered the unlawful killings of Jesuit priests.”

Four of the 17 Salvadoran soldiers implicated in the murder of six Jesuit priests in 1989 were captured over the past few hours by police in the Central American country, security forces said Saturday.

The National Civil Police “continues its search and capture operation for all the others wanted (by Spain),” the force said on its official Twitter account, in announcing its intention to capture all the other members of the military involved in the case who are still at large.

The retired soldiers who were captured are Col. Guillermo Alfredo Benavides, Sgt. Ramiro Avalos Vargas, Sgt. Tomas Zarpate Castillo and Cpl. Angel Perez Vasquez.

Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren on Saturday told the 12 military still on the run to hand themselves over to the law because that is “best for the country.”

“There are people in hiding, we don’t know if they have left the country, but our recommendation is that they hand themselves over to the justice system, which can decide whether to extradite them or not, but what is best for the country is that they give themselves up,” the president said at a public event in the eastern province of San Miguel.

El Salvador tried Montano and another 19 members of the military, but Spain’s Judge Velasco considered the process a fraud and agreed to investigate the case in 2011 at the request of the Pro Human Rights Association of Spain and the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability. EFE