Chilean appeals court upholds sentence against former officers of Pinochet's secret police
Chile's highest criminal court has upheld a ten-year prison sentence for two former commanders of the DINA, linked to the arrest and subsequent disappearance of an activist in 1976.
Chilean appeals court upholds sentence against former officers of Pinochet's secret police
The highest criminal court in the South American country ratified a conviction of ten years' imprisonment imposed on two former members of the intelligence police that operated under the military government headed by Augusto Pinochet.
The supreme criminal tribunal determined that former high-ranking officer Pedro Espinoza and former non-commissioned officer Juvenal Piña were responsible for the illegal arrest and forced disappearance of Rodolfo Núñez Benavides, an incident dating back to 18 May 1976.
According to what was established in the proceedings, agents belonging to the then National Intelligence Directorate apprehended the victim and initially took him to the Villa Grimaldi facilities, known as a clandestine detention centre. He was later moved to the Brigada Lautaro premises, a place used for eliminating political detainees. Since then, his family has had no news of his whereabouts.
Currently, Espinoza is serving additional sentences for crimes against humanity in a high-security prison, whilst Piña is serving his sentence in a penitentiary facility in the north of Santiago.
Carolina Vega, the lawyer who represented the family of the disappeared person, stated that the judicial ruling marks a significant moment in the search for truth. "After more than half a century since Rodolfo was detained and then disappeared, his relatives have achieved a measure of justice," the legal professional from Estudio Caucoto expressed.
However, Vega clarified that the ruling does not close the case, as the whereabouts of the man remain unknown. "The battle to find out what happened and obtain full justice will not end until it is determined where he is," she added.
Espinoza had previously been tried and convicted, alongside former DINA director Manuel Contreras, for the bomb attack in the United States capital that cost the life of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier in 1976.
Between 1973 and 1990, the period of the military regime in Chile, tens of thousands of instances of violations of fundamental guarantees were documented, ranging from deprivations of liberty and abuse to extrajudicial executions and persons reported missing.
Source: Prensa Latina
Source: Google News CL — Crime