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Argentina seeks dirty war officer from Spain

28 Dec 2006 23:19:48 GMT
Source: Reuters

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Argentina has requested that Spain extradite a former Argentine naval officer accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering hundreds of people during Argentina's "Dirty War," a lawyer said on Thursday.

Ricardo Cavallo has been held in a Spanish prison since 2003, when he was extradited from Mexico and charged by authorities in Spain with genocide and terrorism.

Cavallo is accused of working in the notorious School of Naval Mechanics in Buenos Aires, a clandestine torture centure during the 1976-83 military dictatorship.

Up to 30,000 people were killed or "disappeared" during the armed forces' systematic crackdown on leftists and other government dissidents.

Alfredo Solari, Cavallo's lawyer, told Reuters an Argentine federal judge had formally requested his client's extradition.

When Cavallo was handed over to Spain, it was the first time a country had extradited a suspect to another to stand trial for alleged rights abuses committed in a third.

Spanish officials agreed to abandon their investigation of Cavallo after Argentina's Supreme Court last year overturned two amnesty laws shielding military officers from prosecution for rights abuses.

That decision has reopened hundreds of human rights cases making their way through the Argentine legal system.

In September, a retired police commissioner received life in prison for dirty war-era abuses in one of the first sentences since the amnesties were scrapped.

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Last updated:Thu Dec 28 23:21:15 2006