cyu
1st January 2010, 09:03
Excerpts from http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114798§ionid=351020706
Argentina puts more than a dozen former generals and admirals on trial over human rights abuses during the country's dictatorship between 1976 and 1983.
Among the defendants on trial now are some of the dictatorship's most notorious figures, including former Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla, who led the junta that governed after a 1976 coup, and Argentina's last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone. There is also Alfredo Astiz, nicknamed "Blond Angel of Death."
More trials are due next year for those charged with involvement in “Operation Condor,” in which dictatorships across much of South America cooperated in hunting down and killing leftists.
The courts have requested declassified US cables that detail what the United States knew about Argentine military operations in the war against leftist guerrilla groups.
The case is the latest in a string of proceedings seeking to deliver justice for the estimated 30,000 people killed by state security services during the "Dirty War," including some who were thrown from airplanes after being tortured and sedated.
In the 1980s, a "full-stop" law ended investigations and a "due obedience" law absolved those who said they were following the orders of superiors.
In the 1990s, President Carlos Menem pardoned those who had been convicted. But in 2005, Argentina's Supreme Court withdrew the amnesties and prosecutions resumed.
Argentina puts more than a dozen former generals and admirals on trial over human rights abuses during the country's dictatorship between 1976 and 1983.
Among the defendants on trial now are some of the dictatorship's most notorious figures, including former Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla, who led the junta that governed after a 1976 coup, and Argentina's last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone. There is also Alfredo Astiz, nicknamed "Blond Angel of Death."
More trials are due next year for those charged with involvement in “Operation Condor,” in which dictatorships across much of South America cooperated in hunting down and killing leftists.
The courts have requested declassified US cables that detail what the United States knew about Argentine military operations in the war against leftist guerrilla groups.
The case is the latest in a string of proceedings seeking to deliver justice for the estimated 30,000 people killed by state security services during the "Dirty War," including some who were thrown from airplanes after being tortured and sedated.
In the 1980s, a "full-stop" law ended investigations and a "due obedience" law absolved those who said they were following the orders of superiors.
In the 1990s, President Carlos Menem pardoned those who had been convicted. But in 2005, Argentina's Supreme Court withdrew the amnesties and prosecutions resumed.