(31 Mar 2011)
682236
Argentina - Retired general, ex-agents jailed for "dirty war" crimes
AP TELEVISION
Buenos Aires - 31 Mar 2011
1. Defendants inside courtroom at trial for crimes against humanity during the military junta in Argentina
2. Close-up of retired general Eduardo Cabanillas awaiting sentence
3. Wide of people in courtroom
++NIGHT SHOTS++
4. Various of Human Rights organisations and activists celebrating outside court
5. Man celebrating holding up Uruguayan flag
6. Members of Argentine human rights group, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo celebrating sentence
STORYLINE:
On March 31st 2011 a court in Argentina sentenced a former army general to life in prison and three former intelligence agents to 20 or 25 years for crimes against humanity committed at a notorious detention centre during Argentina's military dictatorship.
Former General Eduardo Cabanillas was convicted of illegal imprisonment, torture and homicide involving 65 people held at Automotores Orletti, an auto body shop that served as an operations centre for Operation Condor, a coordinated effort by South America's dictatorships to eliminate dissidents who sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
The crimes took place in 1976.
A fifth accused, a retired colonel, died on February 2011.
Outside the court, survivors of the detention centre and their families cried when they heard the sentence. Many were celebrating and singing.
"It is a glorious and historical day that we are living and that the 'mothers' didn't think we'd live to see. This is legal justice," said Tati Almeida of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an Argentine human rights group.
Other human rights groups also welcomed the court sentence.
Supporters of the military however whistled and shouted out insults to the judge, calling him "corrupt".
Orletti was a centre of torture and detention that reportedly functioned at the Flores neighbourhood in the Argentinean capital in the guise of a garage.
Survivors of the torture centre say bound, blindfolded prisoners were given electric shocks and hoisted up by pulleys and submerged head-first in water in what was known as "the submarine."
Running car engines in the garage covered the screams of the torture victims.
According to records by human rights organisations, over 300 people were kept there, the majority did not survive.
The prisoners were not only Argentineans but also left-leaning students or political activists from Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile and Cuba.
One of them was Marcelo Gelman the son of Argentine poet and human rights activist Juan Gelman.
He was kidnapped with his pregnant wife and sent to Orletti where he was killed. His body was found years later.
She was sent to Uruguay where she gave birth to a girl. Her remains are yet to be found.
Gelman's grand-daughter Macarena was given up for adoption and it was only in 2000 that she found out her real family and recovered her true identity.
Macarena Gelman was one of the plaintiffs at the trial.
The trial reflects Argentina's ongoing effort to resolve crimes of the 1976-1983 military junta.
About 3,000 political dissidents disappeared during the dictatorship, according to official figures.
Human rights groups put the figure at 30-thousand.
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