'Dirty war' officers face justice

[emad]

June 15, 2005

'Dirty war' officers face justice
By Tom Hennigan
A court ruling means that Argentinians suspected of human rights abuses could now be prosecuted



ARGENTINA’S Supreme Court yesterday declared as unconstitutional a series of laws which had protected members of the country’s military from trial for human rights abuses committed during the 1970s.

The ruling opens the way for hundreds of serving and former officers to be brought to account for their actions during the country’s “dirty war”, fought between the military Government that ruled between 1976 and 1983 and various Marxist and Peronist guerrilla movements.

The ruling removes the last barrier to new trials following the decision by Argentina’s congress to annul the laws two years ago.

A civilian Government passed the so-called Due Obedience and Full Stop laws in the 1980s under threat of a military uprising. The laws had brought to an end hundreds of trials of officers, as demanded by the military. But the Supreme Court voted by seven to one in favour of yesterday’s ruling.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1654485,00.html

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1. duplicate topic

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