El Salvador plans to honor a Spanish judge's request who called for the arrest of more than a dozen former soldiers accused of killing six Jesuit priests in a widely reported atrocity during the Central American country's 1980-1992 civil war.

Salvadoran officials on Jan. 6 announced their intent to cooperate after Spanish High Court Judge Eloy Velasco two days earlier renewed his petition to international police agency Interpol and ordered the defendants' capture over allegations they participated in the 1989 murders of the priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, Reuters reported.

Spain's High Court for years has been investigating the case because five of the six Jesuit priests killed were citizens of the kingdom. It first demanded the arrests of 17 Salvadoran ex-military officers as early as 2011, but El Salvador's Supreme Court of Justice said at the time that the case had already been argued and a 1993 amnesty law protected the soldiers, El País reported.

Nevertheless, Salvadoran government spokesman Eugenio Chicas now told Reuters that once legal requirements were met, authorities would go ahead and follow the Spanish request. "The only path for our security forces to take is to proceed with the arrests, that is, there's nothing to do but follow the law," Chicas told reporters in San Salvador.

According to prosecutors, Salvadoran soldiers shot the priests at their home at a university in an effort to silence their criticism of rights abuses committed by the U.S.-backed army during the country's bloody civil war.

"This is a new opportunity for the justice system in this country to put things right," lauded Omar Serrano, a vice rector at the institution where the Jesuits were killed.

All but one of the 17 defendants still reside in El Salvador, El Faro detailed. The sole exception is Inocente Orlando Montano, who is currently serving a prison sentence in the United States, where he has been convicted of immigration fraud and is awaiting extradition to Spain, the local publication added.

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