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Daughter of Argentine 'disappeared' sues family
19 Feb 2008 17:19:17 GMT
 Source: Reuters
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 19 (Reuters) - An Argentine couple went on trial for kidnapping on Tuesday in the first lawsuit brought by a child who was adopted illegally during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, rights campaigners said.

About 400 newborn babies were seized in clandestine torture centers during Argentina's so-called dirty war and adopted by military families or their friends. Human rights groups say nearly 90 of them have since discovered their true identities.

Maria Eugenia Sampallo, who discovered the truth about her past in 2001, is the first of them to take legal action against her adoptive parents. Under the Argentine legal system, a civil plaintiff can bring charges in a criminal court.

The adopting couple, Osvaldo Rivas and Maria Cristina Gomez, and retired army Capt. Enrique Berthier, accused of handing her over to them, are on trial in a federal criminal court in Buenos Aires, charged with kidnapping her from her biological parents, hiding her and falsifying a birth certificate.

Sampallo's mother was abducted in 1977 when she was 6 months pregnant and she gave birth during her detention. Both her parents disappeared after they were arrested and are assumed killed by the military regime.

"This is a brave decision," said Victoria Donda, the first known child of disappeared political prisoners to become a lawmaker in Argentina.

"This decision builds a path to justice, which is what our nation needs," she added. "I've come to support her because I think it's really important to be here."

According to human rights groups, up to 30,000 people were killed during the dictatorship when the government cracked down on leftists and dissidents. An independent commission puts that number at 11,000.

Soon after taking office in 2003, former President Nestor Kirchner persuaded Congress to scrap amnesty laws shielding human rights abusers from prosecution for dictatorship-era crimes, and the Supreme Court ruled similarly in 2005, paving the way for new and reopened rights investigations. (Reporting by Cesar Illiano; Writing by Gaspard Sebag; Editing by David Wiessler)


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