Trial begins against torturer chaplain

[Ian David]

Black Collar Crime

Noticias Aliadas, IPS. Jul 26, 2007

The trial against Catholic priest Christian von Wernich, who was chaplain of the Buenos Aires provincial police during the 1976-83 dictatorship, began on July 5.

Von Wernich was charged with seven counts of murder, 42 kidnappings and 31 cases of torture. Family members of the seven murder victims said von Wernich was in charge of collecting US$1,500 per family so that those in custody could be thrown out of the country, which never happened.

In 1984, police officer Julio Emmed testified before the National Commission on Disappeared Persons that he was with von Wernich when police doctor Jorge Bergés gave lethal injections to four of the seven victims.

The trial, which is taking place in the city of La Plata, is the third one since 2005 when two amnesty laws — the Final Point and Due Obedience laws from 1986 and 1987, respectively — were overturned. These laws prohibited legal action against dictatorship-era human rights repressors (LP, June 29, 2005).

More:
http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=5250