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
dictator****p (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
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