By IANS
Buenos Aires : A former commander of the Argentine Army and two of his deputies have been sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing of civilians and rights abuses during the 1976-1983 military government’s repression of the leftist opposition.
Wednesday’s verdict was the first against armed forces personnel involved in the state-sponsored violence carried out by Jorge Rafael Videla’s military government, Spain’s EFE news agency reported Thursday.
About 30,000 people were believed killed in the military repression popularly known as “Dirty War”.
Retired Gen Cristino Nicolaides and two of his senior deputies, Jorge Luis Arias Duval and Santiago Hoya, were each given jail terms of 25 years by judge Ariel Lijo, while four other former army officers and a retired policeman received slightly shorter sentences.
Neither Nicolaides, who is being held under house arrest in the central province of Cordoba, nor former army officer Juan Carlos Gualco were present at the hearing because of health reasons, judicial officials said.
Human rights groups welcomed the verdict and many, who were present at the court, chanted slogans against the defendants.
The judge found that the defendants were part of a “criminal conspiracy” to abduct, torture and summarily execute members of an armed leftist faction, he said.
The elected government of president Isabel Peron was overthrown in a coup in 1976 by the then army chief Jorge Rafael Videla whose military junta launched a systematic repression of the leftists.
According to reports, about 80 percent of supporters of leftist leader Montoneros had gone missing during the period and their bodies were never found.