Historic life sentences handed down to Argentina's top terror chiefs

A court in Argentina last week handed down life sentences to a group of former navy officials who were responsible for disappearances, torture, murders and other human rights abuses during the country's dark Dirty War period, from 1976 to 1983, when the military was in charge.

The October 26 sentences are being seen as historic in Argentina because it is the first time that members of the notorious Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) have been convicted. The ESMA in Buenos Aires served as a secret detention and torture center where around 5,000 people were taken - most never to be seen again.

Among those given life sentences was Alfredo Astiz, a former intelligence agent known as the "blond angel of death" and member of the GT332 (Task Force 332), who was convicted in absentia in France 21 years ago for taking part in the killings of two French nuns, Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet, in 1977.

Also given life sentences for crimes against humanity were Jorge "El Tigre" Acosta, Antonio Pernías and Ricardo Cavallo, who was captured in Mexico in 2000 on an international arrest warrant issued by the Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzón, and subsequently extradited to Argentina.

Acosta was the chief of ESMA's intelligence unit and was responsible for an operation that led to the arrest of journalist Rodolfo Walsh. Critical of the military regime, Walsh, a member of the Montoneros urban guerrilla movement, was abducted by a commando unit as he was walking in the street on March 25, 1977. He was already dead by the time he arrived at ESMA.

Outside the courtroom, families of the victims cheered and cried when they learned of the verdicts. Of the 18 men on trial, 12 were given life sentences and two were acquitted. Four others were given jail terms between 18 and 25 years. Only Astiz, appearing defiant, grinned when he learned his fate; the rest listened quietly.

During his trial, Astiz, now 59, had tried to provoke reactions from human rights organizations by flashing a novel in the courtroom with the title Return to Kill. He said that the military had actually "saved" Argentina.

The most famous and perhaps the most feared of all the defendants, Astiz infiltrated the human rights group Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, which led to the 1977 arrest of about a dozen of its members, including founder Azucena Villaflor, who were later drugged and thrown off planes on the so-called "death flights" over the River Plate.

Forensic experts identified Villaflor's body in 2005 and concluded that she was thrown off one of these flights. An estimated 30,000 people perished during the Dirty War.

Astiz was indicted in 1983 but escaped prosecution when an amnesty law was later passed under President Carlos Menem. He was indicted and convicted in France, while Spain, Italy and Sweden had all demanded his extradition in relation to disappearances and murders of their nationals living in Argentina. His luck changed when the late President Néstor Kirchner ordered the prosecution of those implicated in Dirty War crimes.