Ten members of “Mara 18”, including two women, were arrested in Sopayango, in the San Salvador suburbs on December 16 in connection with the murder of the Franco-Spanish documentary filmmaker Christian Poveda, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF).
The killing of the photo-journalist, overnight on September 2, 2009, sent shockwaves through the profession. RSF welcomed the commitment of the Salvadorian authorities to solving the case.
These latest arrests bring to 25 the number of those in detention in connection with the murder, five of them arrested in the days following the killing, including one police officer. Ten suspects were already in prison for crimes committed previously.
Charges of “murder”, “collusion with murder” and “forming an armed gang” were put to the ten just-arrested suspects. The prosecutor’s office said that some members of “Mara 18” objected to the way in which they were portrayed in Poveda’s film, La Vida Loca (Crazy Life). Some gang members also reportedly believed that Poveda had given police information about them.
