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Argentina: 10 officers sentenced to life for crimes committed under the dictatorship

2022-07-07T01:41:25.055Z


Argentinian justice sentenced Wednesday, July 6 to life imprisonment ten former soldiers and police officers for crimes committed under the dictatorship...


Argentinian justice sentenced Wednesday, July 6 to life imprisonment ten former soldiers and police officers for crimes committed under the dictatorship (1976-1983).

They were convicted of, among other things, homicide, kidnapping, torture and rape.

The crimes were committed in the Campo de Mayo military barracks against 350 people, including pregnant women and workers from the German multinational Mercedes Benz.

The reading of the court's unanimous decision was followed by the defendants via video conference, while the courtroom was filled with relatives of victims and members of human rights organizations.

Among the 350 victims were fourteen pregnant women whose children were stolen after birth.

In Campo de Mayo, there was a clandestine maternity ward where illegally detained pregnant women gave birth in inhuman conditions before disappearing.

The May Square Grandmothers organization estimates that during the dictatorship some 400 babies were born in captivity and illegally handed over to other people.

Of these, 130 have regained their original identity.

Read alsoFrom Auschwitz to the Argentine dictatorship, surviving horror twice

The list of victims also included many workers and union delegates from factories located in the industrial zone north of Buenos Aires, including car manufacturers Mercedes Benz and the American Ford.

The trial began in 2019 and was largely held remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Initially there were 22 defendants, but two died during the proceedings.

Most had already been convicted in other trials for crimes against humanity.

Former general Santiago Riveros, 98, is the highest ranking officer sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday.

Riveros was sentenced on Monday to another life sentence, along with three other soldiers, for his responsibility in the "death flights", which consisted of throwing drugged prisoners into the sea from planes taking off from Campo de Mayo. .

The former president of the military junta Reynaldo Bignone, former commander of this barracks, who died in 2018, had already been sentenced for crimes perpetrated in Campo de Mayo.

Read alsoThe intact memories of a guinea pig of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele

Since the cancellation of the amnesty laws in 2006, 278 sentences have been handed down for crimes against humanity throughout the country, involving 1,070 people sentenced, many of them to life imprisonment.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-07-07

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