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The former director of Buenos Aires' provincial police Miguel Etchecolatz listens to the verdict in his trial at a court building in La Plata, some 50 km (about 30 miles) south of Buenos Aires, Tuesday Sept. 19, 2006 to hear the verdict in his trial. Etchecolatz was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for his responsibility in the deaths and tortures of six detained persons during Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship. (AP Photo/DyN,Jorge Acuna) |
Argentine investigator gets life
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina --A former police investigator was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday in connection with the disappearance of six people during Argentina's so-called "Dirty War" against political dissent.
The conviction of Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, 77, was the second of its kind since Argentina's Supreme Court in June 2005 annulled a pair of 1980s amnesty laws blocking prosecution of crimes dating to during the nation's 1976-83 dictatorship.
"They are going to convict me," Etchecolatz said in his final statement to the federal court. "They have no shame condemning an old, ailing man."
Etchecolatz was described by prosecutors as a former top collaborator of Ramon Camps, the late Buenos Aires province police chief who was allied with the military when the dictatorship began with a 1976 coup.
Nearly 13,000 people are officially listed killed or missing as a result of what prosecutors described as the dictatorship's systematic crackdown on dissent, known as the "Dirty War." Human rights groups say the toll is closer to 30,000.
Authorities say dissidents, labor leaders, intellectuals and other opponents of the regime were illegally detained and never heard from again. Many were reported to have been tortured and then executed.
More than 100 witnesses were called during the nearly two-month trial that began June 20.
Activists lauded the verdict, including members of the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who have been campaigning for information about sons and daughters who disappeared during the dictatorship.
On Aug. 4, former police officer Julio Simon was sentenced to 25 years in prison for human rights abuses in connection with the 1978 disappearance of a married couple during Argentina's military dictatorship.
Nine junta leaders were convicted and imprisoned in 1985 on charges of abduction, torture and execution, but they were pardoned in 1990 by then-President Carlos Menem. Lower-ranking officers also received pardons.
Etchecolatz is among dozens of former police and state security agents facing prosecution after amnesty laws were overturned last year.
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