[NYTr] Argentina: Ex-Army Chief Gets Stiff Sentence for Human Rights Crimes Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:51:24 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Prensa Latina, Havana http://www.plenglish.com Argentina: Ex-Army Chief Gets Stiff Sentence for Human Rights Crimes Buenos Aires, Dec 18 (Prensa Latina) The ex chief of the Argentine Army, Cristino Nicolaides, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday for crimes against humankind committed during the military dictatorship (1976-83). Judicial sources confirmed that Luis Jorge Arias Duval, Santiago Manuel Hoya, Juan Carlos Gualco, Carlos Gustavo Fontana, Waldo Oscar Roldan, Pascual Oscar Guerrieri and Julio "El Turco Julian" Simon were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from 20 to 23 years. Except Nicolaides, who claimed health problems, all defendants were present in court. The court's ruling coincided with a request by Federal Prosecutor Jorge Alvarez Berlanda, who demanded, along with relatives of the victims, that Nicolaides be sentenced to 25 years in prison for illegal association and illegal deprivation of freedom, pressure and reduction to servitude. Julio Cesar Genoud, Veronica Maria Cabilla, Angel Carbajal, Lia Mariana Ercilia Guangiroli and Ricardo Marcos Zucker were members of a group of exiles who returned home in the 1980s, during the so-called Operacion Contraofensiva (Operation Counteroffensive), organized by the Montoneros organization. Silvia Tolchinsky was abducted in the city of Mendoza, as she was trying to leave the country for Chile, and is the only victim in this trial who survived. After the verdict was read, Argentine Human Rights Secretary Eduardo Luis Duhalde said, "Repressors must be held in common prisons." He added that information on repression during the military regime must be found, because "it is not easily accessed at State agencies." hr jg ocs PL-19 * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================