Argentina: new verdict in the trial of soldiers implicated in crimes of the dictatorship

(illustration) The obelisk and streets of Buenos Aires, May 30, 2020. (Illustration) AFP - ALEJANDRO PAGNI

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4 min

In Argentina, Thursday, June 10, justice delivered a long-awaited verdict.

Five people were sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity.

They were on trial for acts committed over forty years ago during Argentina's military dictatorship.

Publicity

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with our correspondent in Buenos Aires,

Théo Conscience

These convictions come to end a trial that lasted more than two years, required twelve years of investigation and hours of hearing for more than 250 witnesses. It is therefore an extraordinary trial which ended on Thursday, called the trial of the Contraofensive Montonera. Six former members of the military intelligence services, Eduardo Eleuterio Ascheri, Jorge Eligio Bano, Marcelo Cinto Courtaux, Roberto Dambrosi and Luis Ángel Firpo, were on trial for illegal detention, torture and murder of more than 90 people. Acts committed between 1979 and 1980, during the civic-military dictatorship in Argentina in particular, for the repression orchestrated against the "

Montoneros

", a group of politico-military opponents who had launched between 1979 and 1980 guerrilla actions against the junta military.

La resistencia como bandera

Esta imagen es memoria, DÓNDE ESTÁN, pañuelo, militancia, cada Nombre que deberá decir el tribunal cuando ponga a los genocidas en el tacho de basura de la historia

Que ahora sea justicia

A las 14:00 #SentenciaAGenocidas #ContraofensivaMontonera pic .twitter.com / zSgYrdbnro

- HIJOS Capital (@hijos_capital) June 10, 2021

Five life sentences

Before the verdict was read, two of the defendants seized the opportunity given to them to speak out to proclaim once again their innocence. Ultimately, five life sentences were handed down. The sixth defendant, Jorge Norberto Apa, succeeded, to the dismay of the plaintiffs, for his sentence to be handed down in ten days, while a doctor can determine whether he is in physical and psychological condition to hear his verdict.

This is not the first time that the Argentinian courts have handed down prison sentences for crimes committed during the dictatorship.

Since 2006, more than 1000 convictions have been pronounced for offenses of the military dictatorship.

But there is still a long way to go: according to human rights organizations, more than 30,000 people disappeared while the

military was in power in Argentina, between 1976 and 1983

.

In the vast majority of cases, the bodies of these victims have not yet been found or

identified

.

►

To read also

: in Argentina, in search of the bodies of the disappeared of the military dictatorship

However, this trial is of particular importance. According to Pablo Llonto, the lawyer who represents many plaintiffs, it is even the most important since that of the leaders of the military juntas in 1985. It is indeed the first time that the central role of the military was documented and brought to light. intelligence services in the torture and systematic murder of political opponents.

For those close to the victims, it is the end of a wait of more than forty years but only a handful of plaintiffs were physically present in federal court in San Martin on Thursday. Due to the pandemic, the majority of the trial took place virtually, and dozens of relatives, brothers, sisters, children, sometimes grandchildren of victims were present by zoom. They could be seen waving in front of their camera photos of their missing relatives, or signs that read "

Nunca mas

", "never again".

When the verdict was announced, some let down a few tears of joy, or at least of relief.

But their fight does not stop there since many of them are still demanding that the bodies of their loved ones be returned to them.

With these convictions, Argentina continues the work of remembrance that it began in the mid-2000s.

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