The murder case of revered Catholic archbishop Oscar Romero was reopened last week, in a further attempt to prosecute the prelate's suspected killer.
Romero was assassinated in 1980 whilst celebrating Mass in a small hospital chapel. The Salvadorian's murder case is nearly 40 years old, but was reopened on Thursday by Salvador Judge Ricardo Chicas, according to Catholic News Agency.
Romero's suspected killer was not previously convicted because of an amnesty law that banned criminal prosecution stemming from the the El Salvador Civil War. The case was closed in 1993. The country lifted the law last year, and reopened cases from 1980 to 1992.
The suspect is a soldier named Alvaro Rafael Saravia, who has ties to a right-wing death squad believed to be behind the priest's death.
In January the release of a new book about Romero's case, Assassination of a Saint by human rights lawyer Matt Eisenbrandt, was announced. It was thought that the evidence compiled in the book might be enough to warrant a new prosecution.
Eisenbrandt said: 'There are clear [evidential] threads on who gave the original order and who paid for the murder that any concerted investigation in El Salvador would absolutely be able to gather enough evidence to prosecute those involved.'
In his priesthood Romero was famous for speaking out against poverty, social injustice, and military oppression. In January 2015, Romero was officially recognized as a martyr, and a month later Pope Francis approved his beatification.
