Americas News
Policeman gets 25 years for human rights abuses during dictatorship
By DPA
Aug 4, 2006, 23:17 GMT

Buenos Aires - An Argentine court on Friday sentenced a former policeman to 25 years in jail for human rights abuses, in the first verdict handed down for crimes committed during the country's 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

Julio Simon, also known as 'Julian The Turk', was found guilty of the kidnapping, torture and disappearance of a married couple and for the abduction of their eight-month-old daughter in November 1978.

It is the first sentence handed down since Argentina revoked legislation in 2003 of an 18-year-old amnesty for all those who had perpetrated human rights violations during the dictatorship. That decision was upheld by Argentina's Supreme Court last year, paving the way for trials to begin.

The district attorney's office defined Simon as a 'symbol of state terrorism.' The former police sergeant-major remains on trial for 145 counts of 'illegitimate deprivation of freedom' and 47 counts of torture.

After the sentence was announced, Estela de Carlotto, president of the association Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, called Friday a 'historic day.'

'The justice system has known what to do - precisely that, justice. For us it is a very good sentence,' she told journalists, adding that the court's decision means Simon 'rots in jail, as befits a beast.'

'This isn't only for the relatives of the victims in this case, but for the 30,000 people who disappeared' under the dictatorship, De Carlotto said.

The Argentine government also praised the decision, with Human Rights Secretary Eduardo Luis Duhalde calling the sentence 'very positive.'

Simon declined to address the court during the trial. The final verdict was met with applause from the audience present in the chamber.