The Nuhanovic Foundation expresses deep concern and disappointment over the sudden postponement of the long-awaited court hearing in the case of the 1982 murder of four Dutch reporters — Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Joop Willemsen, and Hans ter Laag — commonly referred to as the IKON Case.

The court hearing scheduled for 23 April 2025, which was scheduled to mark a historic moment for the victims’ families and the pursuit of justice for crimes committed during El Salvador’s civil war, was cancelled without prior notice as the lawyer of one of the defendants had to undergo medical surgery. Family members of the victims, who have waited over 40 years for accountability, travelled from the Netherlands to El Salvador to attend the hearing, and were once again left without answers, developments, or closure.

Family members of the victims expressed their deep frustration and sorrow upon hearing of the postponement.

“Feeling optimistic, I traveled to San Salvador last week to attend the trial regarding the murder of my brother Hans ter Laag and his three colleagues in 1982. A day before the trial we learned that it was cancelled because the opposing lawyer had announced at the last minute that she had to undergo surgery that day. That we traveled with three family members from Europe to El Salvador to attend this important event and in addition, the ambassador with his colleague came over from Costa Rica, is it almost inhumane to let it go on like this.

It has now been postponed to June 3, 2025 and I hope to be there again. I am not giving up. Justice will come. I do this for my beloved brother Hans ter Laag.”

– Sonja ter Laag, Hans ter Laag’s sister.

 

“It is in your hands, as the court, to deliver the verdict and decide the sentence. For me and for my loved ones, the most important thing is to obtain an answer to this question: Why did my brother and his colleagues have to die? Why did they have to be executed? Out of the hundreds of journalists in the country, why did the army choose these four to be executed?”

– Saskia ter Laag, Hans ter Laag’s sister.

 

With the illusion that justice would finally be brought in the case of the 4 IKON reports, I left for El Salvador. Press interest there was high and the presence of Sonja and Saskia ter Laag and myself, as well as that of our Ambassador, helped to bring more attention to the case. There is hope among many people in the country that the public hearing will be the first in a series of major court cases related to the civil war.

Great was our disappointment that the hearing was adjourned to early June because one of the lawyers deliberately obstructed the court proceedings. In addition, the jury would not be present with the required number of people.

All this disappointed me considerably. Moreover, we have received absolutely no guarantee that the hearing will indeed take place in June.

– Gert Kuiper, Jan Kuiper’s brother

The four reporters, working for Dutch public broadcaster IKON, were ambushed and executed by a unit of the Salvadoran army on 17 March 1982 in Chalatenango, while reporting on the civil war and the impact of military repression on civilians. Investigations, including those by the UN Truth Commission, have confirmed that the reporters were deliberately targeted by the Salvadoran military — a premeditated act intended to silence critical international reporting. In 2022, a Salvadoran court indicted three former military officials — Colonel Mario Reyes Mena (currently residing in the United States), General José Guillermo García (former Minister of Defense), and Colonel Francisco Morán (former head of the Treasury Police) — for the murder of the four reporters.

The trial in the IKON case has now been postponed to 3rd June 2025.

The Nuhanovic Foundation (NF), together with REDRESS, Fundación Comunicándonos, and ASDEHU, remains committed to continuing its support for the victims’ families, in addition to working to increase visibility and amplify awareness of the case, both domestically and internationally.

For further information and detailed FAQ’s on the IKON case, visit our case page or contact us at mail@nuhanovicfoundation.org.