By Gerardo Arbaiza
SAN SALVADOR, April 15 (Reuters) - Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has enacted legal reforms allowing life imprisonment for minors as young as 12 convicted of homicide, terrorism, or rape, according to the country's official gazette.
The measures, published on Tuesday and scheduled to take effect April 26, follow a constitutional amendment approved in March by the government-controlled Congress.
The changes eliminate special legal procedures previously available to offenders aged 12 to 18, though they include provisions for periodic sentence reviews and potential supervised release.
The constitutional amendment came days after an international legal panel reported "reasonable grounds" to suggest El Salvador has committed crimes against humanity during a years-long state of emergency.
The United Nations human rights office criticized the reforms for violating children's rights. Bukele defended the measures, saying the previous legal framework granted impunity to young criminals.
The 44-year-old president's ongoing state of emergency, which suspends various constitutional guarantees, has led to the detention of more than 90,000 people. Humanitarian organizations estimate at least 500 of those detainees have died in state custody.
(Reporting by Gerardo Arbaiza; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle, Rod Nickel)
