MEXICO CITY, April 21 (dpa) - The mass trial of nearly 500 alleged members of the notorious MS-13 gang started on Monday in El Salvador.
The Attorney General's office said that "486 MS-13 gang leaders are facing justice in an open hearing."
"These criminals are accused of committing more than 47,000 crimes, which they directly ordered and which were carried out nationwide between 2012 and 2022," Salvadorean prosecutors said.
The charges include murder and femicide, extortion, drug trafficking, kidnapping and arms trafficking.
"They are also being prosecuted for rebellion because they sought to maintain territorial control in order to establish a parallel state, defying the authority of the state and undermining national sovereignty and the constitutional order, the Attorney General's office said.
Prosecutors said that among the accused are also individuals behind a deadly wave of violence in 2022 which resulted in 86 deaths and triggered a state of emergency, which is still in place and suspends constitutional guarantees.
The mass trial is possible due to a 2025 law implemented in the context of the state of emergency which allows authorities to "prosecute the entire criminal structure en masse in a single case file."
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is one of two gangs blamed for much of the violent crime in El Salvador. It is also active in the United States, where it was founded by Salvadoran migrants in the 1980s.
–NNN-dpa