Tegucigalpa (Honduras), Sep 7 (IANS) A Honduras court has sentenced a former jail official to 1,035 years in prison for involvement in the massacre of 69 inmates during a jail riot, EFE reported.The court of La Ceiba province of Hoduras also convicted and sentenced 21 people to various terms in jail for the mass killing at the El Porvenir prison farm in the Caribbean province of Atlanta during an armed clash in April 2003, a spokesperson of the Attorney General’s office said Saturday.

Those sentenced included jail inmates, police personnel, soldiers and prison authorities, the official told reporters.

Human rights commissioner Ramon Custodio expressed his satisfaction at the sentence.

The killings took place when jail inmates clashed with members of a criminal gang after a gang member shot dead one of the inmates. Jail staff and police were also involved in the clash.

Among the 69 killed in the clash were three visitors to the jail farm, including a minor girl, while the rest were inmates who were either burnt to death inside their cells or shot.