Buenos Aires, April 01:A federal court in Argentina has sentenced former officials to serve time behind bars for human rights violations committed some 35 years ago.
The Argentine court handed former Gen. Eduardo Cabanillas a life-long jail term for his role in the illegal imprisonment, torture and homicide involving 65 people held at an auto body shop that served as an operations center for eliminating political dissidents in the second half of the 70s, AP reported on Thursday.
The center was used during the so-called Operation Condor, a coordinated effort by South American dictatorships to get rid of political dissidents that sought refuge in neighboring countries, the report added.
The court has also sentenced three other intelligence officials to between 20- and 25-year jail terms
The federal Argentine court sentenced former army intelligence agent Raul Guglielminetti to 20 years in prison while former spies Honorio Martinez Ruiz and Eduardo Ruffo each received 25 years. A fifth suspect in the case, retired Col. Ruben Visuara, died in February.
“It is a glorious and historical day that we are living and that the ‘mothers’ didn’t think we’d live to see. This is legal justice,” said Tati Almeida of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an Argentine human rights group.
The men have been charged for their role in suppression, kidnapping and assassination of communist activists during the country’s military rule between 1976 and 1983.
The trial reflects Argentina’s ongoing efforts to resolve crimes of the military junta.
Rights activists say some 30,000 people have disappeared during the dictatorship in Argentina. More than 80 witnesses, among them children who were born in the regime’s hidden detention centers, gave testimony during the trials.
——–Agencies