Supreme Court of Justice orders arrest of ex-Uruguayan agent "El Burro" for crimes under Operation Condor
The Supreme Court of Justice has ordered the arrest of Pedro Antonio Mato Narbondo, who holds Brazilian nationality, for the deaths of four Italians in Argentina in 1976.
Ex-Uruguayan agent to be imprisoned in Brazil for torture and killings during dictatorship
The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) has ordered the issuance of an arrest warrant against Pedro Antonio Mato Narbondo, a former official of the political repression service of the Uruguayan dictatorship, according to g1.globo.com. The decision, taken by the Special Court last Wednesday (21st), requires the defendant to serve a sentence in Brazil for the kidnappings, torture and murders of four Italian citizens in Argentina in 1976.
Narbondo, known by the codename "El Burro", was born in Uruguay and worked in the 1970s as an official of the Defence Information Service (SID), the intelligence agency of the Uruguayan military dictatorship. In the 2000s, he opted for Brazilian nationality — which prevented his extradition to Italy to serve his sentence.
The Milan Court of Appeal had sentenced Narbondo to life imprisonment. The STJ endorsed this foreign sentence and converted the sentence to 30 years imprisonment, as life imprisonment does not exist in Brazilian legal order.
Since March of this year, by judicial order responding to a request from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), Narbondo wore an electronic ankle bracelet and was prohibited from leaving Santana do Livramento, in Rio Grande do Sul, where he resides.
According to the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic Artur Gueiros, responsible for the case, this is the first time that an agent of a dictatorial regime will serve a prison sentence for violations of human rights committed in the context of the military dictatorship in Brazil.
The crimes were committed under Operation Condor, a coordination between intelligence services of South American countries — among them Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay — to pursue political opponents. The operation included kidnappings, forced transfers of persons between countries, forced disappearances and elimination of opponents of the exceptional regimes.
Among military personnel linked to the SID convicted of the murders of the four Italian citizens, Narbondo was the only one who remained at liberty.
During the trial, the justices debated the possibility of applying the Amnesty Law, which pardoned political crimes committed during the dictatorial period. The majority of the court rejected this thesis.
The MPF argued that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights classifies torture, extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances as serious violations of human rights, not subject to statute of limitations or amnesty. The body further maintained that permitting the fulfilment of foreign sentences in Brazil prevents Brazilian citizens convicted of serious crimes abroad from remaining unpunished by virtue of being on national territory.
Source: Google News BR — Crime