'Los Pozos' trial: 10 handed life sentences for dictatorship-era abuses
TODAY 14:28
Court issues 10 lifetime prison sentences as part of a long-running, mass prosecution into incidents of kidnapping, torture, rape and disappearances at three sites during the country's 1976-83 military dictatorship.
One of Argentina’s largest and longest prosecutions for crimes against humanity carried out during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship has ended with 10 ex-repressors sentenced to life imprisonment.
Oral Federal Court No. 1 in La Plata on Tuesday issued the punishments after completion of a trial over 400 cases at three clandestine centres in Buenos Aires Province.
Along with 10 lifetime sentences, one defendant was sentenced to 25 years, while another was acquitted. Six others have died in the three years since the trial began – including Miguel Etchecolatz, one of the main targets of the trial, who passed away in 2022 at age 93.
During the trial, which began in in 2020 and lasted more than three years, charges of abduction, forced disappearances, homicide, torture, rape, baby-snatching, forced abortions and other crimes were considered proven by the testimony of witnesses and survivors according to the La Plata federal court conducting the trial. The court ordered “urgent” medical tests to resolve whether the house arrest enjoyed by most of those convicted should be revoked so that they serve their sentences in prison.
More:
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/los-pozos-trial-10-handed-life-sentences-for-dictatorship-era-abuses.phtml