Italy approves extradition of priest charged with murder and torture during Argentina dictatorship
Italy’s justice minister has approved extraditing an Italian priest sought by Argentina on charges of murder and torture during that country’s last military dictatorship
By FRANCES D'EMILIO Associated Press
August 3, 2023, 2:37 PM
ROME -- Italy’s justice minister has approved extraditing an Italian priest sought by Argentina on charges of murder and torture during that country’s last military dictatorship, but the priest has an appeal in Italian courts seeking to block extradition, a lawyer and rights groups said Thursday.
Attorney Arturo Salerni, who represents Argentina, told The Associated Press that Justice Minister Carlo Nordio on Wednesday signed off on the request to extradite the Rev. Franco Reverberi, an 85-year-old priest who served as military chaplain during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
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The Catholic church's hierarchy in Argentina has been widely criticized for being allied with Argentina's military regime that ran a campaign to illegally detain and kill people it deemed “subversive.” When Pope St. John Paul II visited the country in 1987, critics lamented his failure to decry church support for military rulers, especially since the pontiff had just arrived from Chile, where he had denounced the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
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Reverberi emigrated from Italy to Argentina when he was about seven years old, said Ithurburu. The rights group he heads takes its name from the date March 24 in 1976, when a U.S.-backed coup in Argentina installed a military government.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/italy-approves-extradition-priest-wanted-murder-torture-argentina-101996732
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Franco Reverberi
Google translation:
The Cassation cancels the stop on the extradition of the former military chaplain Franco Reverberi
04 JULY 2022
UPDATED 07 JULY 2022 AT 18:25
2 MINUTE READ
The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation on June 30 made a decision that opens up the possibility of a trial for the former military chaplain Franco Reverberi, accused of having committed crimes against humanity during the years of General Videla's dictatorship.
The Cassation in fact annulled the sentence with which the Court of Appeal of Bologna on 17 March had refused the extradition of Reverberi.
The priest, who in 2011, shortly after the first trial against the crimes committed during the dictatorship had opened in Mendoza, was able to leave Argentina to settle in Sorbolo, his country of origin, will therefore have to answer in a trial accusations against him.
In addition to the accusation of having been part of the clandestine repressive apparatus found guilty of the kidnapping of dozens of people and of having witnessed the torture sessions of four surviving prisoners, it was added, following new acquisitions, that of being implicated in the disappearance of José Guillermo Berón, a 20-year-old boy kidnapped and then disappeared in 1976.
"Today Reverberi's impunity is over and now he will have to deal with justice. The decision of the Court of Appeal was inadmissible, deeply offensive towards the victims and towards history: from the reasons it seemed that Reverberi carried out activities in a prison with detained but he operated in a clandestine facility where prisoners were tortured and made to disappear.The Casa Departimental of San Rafael was an illegal facility set up in the dungeons of a courthouse where elite groups of the army tortured dissidents, some of whom were killed " commented Jorge Ithurburu, president of 24 Marzo Onlus, an association that assists the families of the victims.
Sorbolo, the Don Reverberi case: "The community is tired. Let's not judge facts we don't know"
January 20, 2021
The lawyer Arturo Salerni, who defends the Argentine Republic, had appealed against the sentence that denied extradition: "The judicial proceedings that took place in Mendoza revealed, among other crimes, the disappearance and killing of a boy held prisoner in San Rafael. For this murder, which is not time-barred, the Argentine judicial authority has therefore advanced a new accusation against Reverberi and a new request for extradition", Salerni points out.
"In the event that an extradition is not reached for health reasons, all of which are still to be examined, the trial could be moved to Italy. Just as we now have the proceedings against the Argentine colonel Malatto in Italy. Now we wait to read the reasons with which the Cassation fully accepted our appeal, opening up the possibility of a trial and the writing of a page of truth and justice2.
With respect to the judicial turning point, the public prosecutor of Mendoza, Dante Vega observes that "the Court of Cassation of Rome, by revoking the sentence of the Court of Appeal, gives the victims hope that justice will be done for the serious crimes committed in the lowest period of the Argentine history The Cassation has also demonstrated that Italy today is not a refuge for mass criminals like Jorge Troccoli and Carlos Malatto, people who managed to flee to Italy and then used their citizenship to escape the punishment they deserve. cannot be tolerated by the international community".
https://tinyurl.com/3pd6byhz
= new reply since forum marked as read
Miércoles, July 12, 2023Reverberi Boschi was auxiliar chief of the Escuadrón de Exploración de Montaña VIII of San Rafael.
The Italian-Argentine priest Franco Reverberi, accused of crimes against humanity by having collaborated with the Argentine dictadura of 1976, could finally be extradicted in Argentina, as the government demands to be prosecuted there.
Reverberi Boschi was the assistant chief of the Escuadrón de Exploración de Montaña VIII of San Rafael and was investigated by hechos cometidos in the Clandestino Detention Center "La Departamental", which functioned in the headquarters of the local courts. He died in the country in 2011, when the first juice was made in Mendoza for crimes against humankind, and the witnesses of survivors and family members began to report his responsibility.
In 2013 the first pedigree of extradition was carried out, but the Italian judiciary requested it because the indictment only included reports of torture, a crime that is not imprescriptible in this country. Starting from the new testimonies united in the causes of Mendoza, the indictment could be expanded to include his participation in the crimes, torments and murder of José Berón, who remained disappeared.
In the last few years, the Argentine state, at the request of the Secretaría de Rechos Humanos, began to give you a new impetus to the extradition order and presented itself as an interested part of the process.
The secretary Horacio Pietragalla Corti traveled the past year to meet with the tax authorities in the case and the secretariat sent, además, the reports made on the penal units of Ezeiza and Campo de Mayo to accredit that these units of prisons have the appropriate conditions to stay in personas de advanced edad y con problemas de salud.
In March last, the Cámara de Apelaciones de Bolonia wanted to request the extradition, however, starting from a recurso interposed by the representative of the Argentine State, on June 30 the Italian Supreme Court of Casación ordered her to issue a new foul keeping in mind las pruebas que no había analizado. In the wrong resolution, it also modified its jurisprudence. Thus, starting from the work of the Secretaría, together with the organizations of the Italian civil society, it was recognized that the Italian justice, that hasta el momento only granted extradiciones per case of homicide, considering that tortures are also part of the crimes of lesa humanidad y en consecuencias extraditables.
Aside from the SDHN, the Argentine State also pushes in Italy an extradition pedigree against the exmilitar Carlos Malatto, accused of human crimes against more than 100 people in San Juan and collaborates in the cause that family members of victims began in Italy against the represor and seeks to constitute as plaintiff in a future oral juicio. Furthermore, he is the plaintiff in the law that follows against the Uruguayan ex-military Jorge Troccoli, who will be judged by an Argentine victim of the Plan Cóndor.
https://www.minutoya.com/nota/162992-extraditan-a-la-argentina-al-cura-franco-reverberi/
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Older story, google translation:
Church and dictatorship. Franco Revérberi, the repressive priest of San Rafael who can be extradited from Italy for trial
The Italian court opened the possibility of his extradition to be tried for torture and disappearance of people in the clandestine center "La Departamental" which occurred in the south of the province during the last dictatorship.
Andres Bustamante
Thursday, July 7, 2022 | 11:19
By
Editorial Mendoza Newspaper
|
08/02/2023
The Italian Justice confirmed this Wednesday the extradition to Argentina of the former military chaplain of San Rafael , Franco Reverberi Boschi, to be tried for his alleged participation in crimes against humanity committed in Mendoza during the last civic-military dictatorship (1976-1983). .
Reverberi Boschi was auxiliary chaplain of the VIII Mountain Exploration Squad of San Rafael and is being investigated for acts committed in the "La Departamental" Clandestine Detention Center, which operated at the headquarters of the local courts.
The decision of the portfolio led by Carlo Nordio thus left firm the resolution of the Court of Appeals of Bologna, which in early July granted the request of the Argentine State to try in the country the suspect of kidnappings, torture and a homicide.
The former chaplain will finally be extradited to our country to stand trial.
Reverberi Boschi, born in Italy in 1937, had fled the country in 2011, when the first trial for crimes against humanity was held in Mendoza and the testimonies of survivors and family members began to point to his responsibility.
The path to the extradition of the former military chaplain began in 2013 and had a boost in recent years at the request of the National Human Rights Secretariat, the portfolio highlighted in a statement.
As reported by the secretariat in charge of Horacio Pietragalla Corti, during the process to achieve the extradition of Reverberi Boschi, the Argentine State promoted the modification of the jurisprudence of the Italian Justice, which only considered imprescriptible the crimes of homicide, to also include torture as Crimes against humanity.
This modification allowed the former Army chaplain to be extradited for a homicide and also for the torment suffered by 10 victims in the "La Departamental" CCD.
In March 2022, the Bologna Court of Appeals rejected the Argentine request, so the representative of the State appealed to the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, which on June 30 of last year ordered a new ruling to be issued that took into account evidence that had not been analysed.
In that same resolution, the Supreme Court of Cassation modified its jurisprudence, which only considered the crimes of homicide imprescriptible, to "also include torture as crimes against humanity."
In 2013, Argentina filed the first extradition request and denounced Reverberi for torture.
However, the Court of Bologna in 2013 and the Supreme Court of Cassation in 2014 considered that the presentation was "unfounded", since the Bilateral Extradition Treaty signed between Argentina and the European country establishes that to give rise to the request, the crime has to be recognized in the legislation of both countries, and at that time, there was no criminal offense for torture in Italy.
But starting in 2017, Italian legislation incorporated torture into its Penal Code and in 2020 Argentina started a new request again.
Once the modification of the typology of the crime was achieved, the accusation was extended to Reverberi, adding the responsibility that he may have had regarding the disappearance of all the people who passed through that clandestine detention center.
During the process, his possible participation in the murder of the political militant José Guillermo Berón was also included in the accusation against the former chaplain, together with testimonies that stated that he had seen Reverberi in "La Departamental" between July 9, 1976 and September 26. from 1976.
Those dates coincide with the arrest and subsequent disappearance of Berón, who was kidnapped on August 28, 1976, and thus, the case states that the priest was simultaneously in the CCD with a person who would later be disappeared.
The possible role of the priest in crimes against humanity was exposed during the first trial for these crimes that took place in 2010 in the province of Mendoza, in the city of San Rafael.
During the testimonial statements, five victims mentioned their presence (some described it in detail) during the torture to which they were subjected, mainly in the clandestine detention center known as the "Departmental House."
The religious will be tried in our country for the abusive deprivation of liberty aggravated by mediating violence and threats and for having lasted more than a month to the detriment of Alfredo Rafael Porras, Roberto Rosalez, Roberto Rolando Flores, Hugo Adelmo Riera, Sergio Segundo Chaki, Mario Hector Bracamonte, Luis Barahona, Marcos Antonio Valdez and José Guillermo Berón.
He is also accused of torment aggravated by the victim's condition of political persecution, to the detriment of Roberto Rolando Flores, Sergio Segundo Chaki, Hugo Adelmo Riera, Mario Héctor Bracamonte, Luis Barahona, Alfredo Rafael Porras, Marcos Antonio Valdez, Roberto Rosalez, Isidro Calívar and José Guillermo Berón.
https://www.diariomendoza.com.ar/policiales/sera-extraditado-cura-estaba-acusado-torturas-san-rafael-n52134
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They ask Italy again to extradite the priest Franco Reverberi Boschi, wanted for crimes against humanity
April 26, 2021 |
Survivors accuse him of having witnessed torture and participated in a homicide in San Rafael, during the dictatorship
The Catholic priest Franco Reverberi Boschi witnessed torture sessions in the illegal detention center Casa Departamental, which operated in the Mendoza city of San Rafael during the last dictatorship, "with a holstered pistol under one of his shoulders and a bible in his hand right", according to victims who were in that place.
Based on these testimonies, the federal justice of Mendoza sent for the second time to Italy a request for the extradition of this religious, who has lived for ten years in Sorbolo, a town of 9,000 inhabitants located in the province of Parma, Italy, where he was born. 83 years ago.
To this day, this former chaplain of the Army's VIII Mountain Exploration Squadron based in San Rafael celebrates masses in the parish of Santi Faustino e Giovita, where he enjoys his status as an Italian citizen.
Reverberi's participation in the crimes perpetrated during the illegal repression was exposed in the first trial against humanity that was held in San Rafael and Mendoza in 2010.
At least five people declared that they had seen the priest in the Departmental House when torture sessions were taking place, which he attended as a privileged spectator, without applying torment on the detainees.
"He was walking dressed in black pants, a shirt and a stiff collar. He was carrying a pistol holstered in a holster and had a Bible in his hand. He told us that we should repent and collaborate with the soldiers who tortured us," he said in statements to Télam. Roberto Flores, a former militant of the Peronist Youth (JP) who between April and October 1976 was held captive in the CCD Casa Departamental.
Flores, a painter who lives in San Rafael, gave the same testimony 11 years ago, when he declared before a Federal Court in the debate of an oral and public trial, like Sergio Chaqui, Hugo Riera, Ángel Di Cesare and Mario bracamonte. Based on these testimonies, the Public Prosecutor's Office requested that Reverberi be summoned for an investigation, a request that Judge Eduardo Puigdéngolas authorized on August 10, 2011.
But three months earlier, the priest left the country for Italy, the homeland he had left at the age of 11 with his family, when he emigrated to Argentina at the end of the Second World War.
Reverberi claimed that he could no longer answer to justice due to "heart problems" and the federal prosecutor's office in San Rafael decided to request his extradition in 2012.
By hindering the process to submit to an investigation, the priest was included on the Interpol wanted list, but a year later, a Bologna Court rejected the request of the Argentine Justice.
However, a change in the Italian Penal Code, which incorporated the crime of torture, prompted the San Rafael Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH) to present a new extradition request.
"This change in the Italian criminal code allows double criminality with Argentina for the crime of torture, and for this reason we ask the San Rafael Prosecutor's Office to proceed with the extradition again," Ricardo Ermili, a lawyer for the APDH.
The request included charges against the priest for the crimes of homicide and unlawful deprivation of liberty.
Federal prosecutors Dante Vega and Pablo Garciarena processed the request and accused the priest of his participation in the murder of JP militant José Guillermo Berón, who was held captive in the Departmental House and remains missing.
"José was with us, we were militants together in the same neighborhood. We last saw him in the Departmental House in October 1976. I and other comrades left, but he is still missing," Flores said.
On March 29, Judge Puigdéngolas resolved to request a second extradition request against Reverberi, based on the grounds set forth in the APDH complaint and the Public Prosecutor's Office, and asked the Foreign Ministry to initiate the process so that the priest appear before the Argentine Courts.
"I saw him (Reverberi) in the Departmental House at least four times. Once they made us clean the floor by dragging our naked bodies across the floor on a winter night. He always came with two or three more, between 2 and 3 in the morning. It was July 9, '76, they beat us and tortured us all afternoon and he was watching everything, dressed as a military man," Mario Bracamonte, another JP militant who was detained at Casa, told this agency. Departmental.
From his native Sorbolo, the priest denies the accusations and alleges that the Army appointed him chaplain in 1980 and that he was not in the clandestine center where several witnesses place him.
Meanwhile, the former chaplain gives masses by streaming due to the impossibility of the faithful to approach Italian temples due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
"Sin is darkness, death and distance from God. Let us convert and ask the Lord for forgiveness. Before we were darkness, now we must be the light of the Lord," Reverberi preached from the pulpit in one of the virtual ceremony, as published by El Salto, a Spanish digital media.
Last January, that same medium published an extensive note about the priest and two others accused of crimes against humanity who are fugitives in Italy: the Argentine Carlos Malatto and the Uruguayan Jorge Néstor Troccoli. In March and April, the documentary “600 Bodies” was also broadcast, co-produced by RAI and the Télam agency.
"At this point, the truth is, I don't want him to go to jail. I want him to face Justice and say everything he knows. Tell him what happened to our colleagues," Bracamonte stressed about Reverberi and his desire for justice.
https://memoria.telam.com.ar/lesa-humanidad/202104/piden-otra-vez-a-italia-que-extradite-al-cura-franco-reverberi-boschi--buscado-por-delitos-de-lesa-humanidad_n8971
Reminder, in 1976, in the U.S., the President was Gerald Ford, and his Secretary of State who oversaw operations regarding Argentina's dictatorship was none other than Henry Kissinger, of course. Same guy who was only too happy to participate with Richard Nixon and the CIA as they worked together to "make Chile's economy scream," assassinate various pro-Allende officials and install the bloody, torture and murder enthusiast, General Augusto Pinochet.
