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(CNN Spanish) - Due to the pandemic, at least 26 convicted and prosecuted for crimes against humanity committed during the last civic-military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983) received house arrest, according to the Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes against Humanity and resolutions judicial to which CNN agreed.
These 26 convicts represent 19% of the total of those convicted and accused of human rights violations who applied to the Justice for these benefits for belonging to the covid-19 risk group, according to official statistics.
One of the last to obtain the benefit is Carlos Octavio Capdevila, alias “Tommy”, convicted in three trials for human rights violations committed at the former Army School of Mechanics (ESMA). The Navy doctor served as midwife in several cases of pregnant detainees who gave birth in that clandestine detention center and whose children were appropriated and delivered, in a significant number, to families close to the dictatorship.
Capdevila was added to the list of benefited repressors on April 27 because he belongs to the risk group for the new coronavirus, according to the court's resolution and the information provided by the Federal Penitentiary System to Justice.
The midwife of the former ESMA is serving three sentences of 20, 15 and 10 years in prison, but would serve a maximum of 25 years, as established by law in Argentina. When he was first sentenced in 2011, he was already serving preventive detention, for which he has spent more than a decade in prison.
On April 7, before receiving house arrest, Capdevila had obtained another benefit that was suspended: the Federal Oral Court number 5 granted him release in one of the cases, due to the time he has been in Unit 31 of Ezeiza. Her freedom was not effective because she has two more convicts, they explained in the Attorney General's office.
The rest of his former ESMA colleagues must remain in prison. They requested house arrest but the court did not grant them.
All are over 60 years old and have chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure, among other pathologies that appear in the report of the Federal Penitentiary Service.
One of them is ex-Navy officer Alfredo Astiz, nicknamed "Black Angel" or "Angel of Death", who, as proved in the trials, infiltrated the first group of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo who claimed for the disappearance of their children; and the other is Jorge Eduardo “Tigre” Acosta (head of the ESMA task group that was part of Astiz).
Ricardo Cavallo, alias “Sérpico”, is convicted of having participated in the “death flights” (a method of disappearance that consisted of raising the detainees to an airplane and throwing them into the sea) and of the kidnapping, torture and death of the nuns French Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, among other cases of enforced disappearances, torture and humiliation. The Justice also denied him for the moment the benefit of the domicile.
Cavallo was hidden for more than a decade in Mexico, then he was extradited to Spain and later to Argentina. In recent days, the French government withdrew the National Order of Merit decoration, which he had awarded for his duties at the Argentine embassy in Paris during part of the military government.
There are 15 other appeals that are still pending, according to official figures.
Both prosecutors and defenses have decided to appeal court decisions in 63 cases. The Federal Chamber of Cassation had yet to resolve 16 appeals.
The context
Alberto Fernández's government is evaluating what works to do in prisons in order to isolate prisoners considered at-risk populations in the covid-19 pandemic, as confirmed by two sources from different official organizations.
The idea is to stop the controversy over requests for house arrest and guarantee the claims of inmates and human rights organizations.
In the province of Buenos Aires, the local Supreme Court ruled on Monday on the matter and decided that the judges review all the house arrests and releases granted to defendants of different crimes during the pandemic.
The other risk prisoners
In the federal prison system, there are at least 1,280 detainees who make up that group of health risks, according to the list that CNN accessed. It is a payroll prepared by the Executive, at the request of federal Justice, and based on the medical records of the prisons.
There are 430 convicted and prosecuted for drug possession; 13 other prisoners for corruption cases; and 333 for crimes against property.
In addition, there are 109 detainees for crimes such as kidnappings, 81 for crimes against sexual integrity and 187 for homicides and injuries. Many are accused of crimes against humanity committed during the last civic-military dictatorship.
The factors that put them at risk are diabetes in 20.7% of cases; HIV (in 18%); chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, in 16% of cases; and to a lesser extent, heart failure, cancer and pregnancy.
Approximately one third of the 1,280 inmates are over the age of 60.
House arrestcovid-19