Reuters AlertNet Lite - Argentina seeks arrest of ex-president Isabel Peron

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

Argentina seeks arrest of ex-president Isabel Peron

12 Jan 2007 00:12:09 GMT
Source: Reuters

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 11 (Reuters) - An Argentine judge on Thursday issued an international arrest warrant for former President Isabel Peron as part of a probe into the killing of dissidents before Argentina's military dictatorship.

Federal Judge Raul Acosta wants to question Peron in a case involving the 1976 disappearance of a man who rights group claim was last seen being taken into custody by state security agents, judicial officials said.

The warrant comes as investigators have revived probes of the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance, a right-wing death squad known as the "Triple A," which rights groups say murdered or abducted up to 2,000 people in the run up to 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

Prosecutors claim Peron -- the third wife of former Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron -- signed three decrees that cleared the way for acts of state terrorism during her 1974-1976 rule. She was ousted in a March 1976 coup.

Peron, who lives in Spain, assumed office after the death of her husband. But she struggled to hold onto power as political violence between leftist guerillas and death squads swept Argentina.

Rights groups say many members of the "Triple A" squad were later recruited by the military to help carry out its systematic crackdown on dissent after it came to power.

According to government figures, more than 11,000 people were killed during military rule, but human rights groups put the death toll at 30,000.

Two suspected members of the "Triple A" squad have been arrested over the last week in connection with other cases, including a former top aide to Peron.

AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article Send comments

Countries

Small country map
© 2004 Europa Technologies Ltd.

Reset map

• Argentina profile
· View map

MORE >>

NGO latest

• Alliance urges action to close the HIV services gap at International Development Committee session on global HIV epidemic
International HIV/AIDS Alliance - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

• Argentina seeks arrest of ex-president Isabel Peron

• Hamas comments one bright spot 15 years after Madrid

• Argentina probes pre-Dirty War rights crimes

• FACTBOX-Main points of new EU energy strategy

• French police arrest two ETA suspects

MORE >>

Last updated:Fri Jan 12 00:13:28 2007