This is good. This is Something we should celebrate!
1. Argentine Court Sentences Ex-Dictator for Operation Condor
By DEBORA REY and LUIS ANDRES HENAO May. 28, 2016Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's last dictator and 14 other former military officials were sentenced Friday to prison for human rights crimes committed during the Operation Condor conspiracy to hunt down dissidents across South America and beyond.
Operation Condor was launched in the 1970s by six South American dictators who used their secret police networks in a coordinated effort to track down their opponents across borders and eliminate them. Some leftist dissidents had sought refuge in neighboring countries only to be detained as part of the state-sponsored terror campaign.
An Argentine court on Friday sentenced former junta leader Reynaldo Bignone, 88, to 20 years in prison for being part of an illicit association, kidnapping and abusing his powers in the forced disappearance of more than 100 people. The former general who ruled Argentina in 1982-1983 is already serving life sentences for multiple human rights violations during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.
In the landmark trial, 14 other former military officials received prison sentences of eight to 25 years for criminal association, kidnapping and torture. They include Uruguayan army colonel, Manuel Cordero Piacentini, who allegedly tortured prisoners inside Automotores Orletti, the Buenos Aires repair shop where many captured leftists were interrogated under orders from their home countries. Two of the accused were absolved.
The sentences are seen as a milestone because they mark the first time a court has proved that the criminal conspiracy called Operation Condor was carried out by the U.S.-backed regimes in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
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2. Hissène Habré, Ex-President of Chad, Is Convicted of War Crimes
DAKAR, Senegal — Hissène Habré, the former president of Chad,
was sentenced to life in prison after he was found guilty of crimes
against humanity, torture and sex crimes on Monday, more than 20 years
after the start of a campaign to hold him accountable for the suffering
and death of tens of thousands of people.
Mr. Habré, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, when he was deposed by the current president, Idriss Déby, stood trial before a special court in Senegal created to handle the case. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, which he is expected to serve in Senegal.
“The
systematic torture at such a large scale was his way of governing,”
said Gberdao Gustave Kam, the presiding judge on a three-judge panel,
who read a summary of the verdict. “Hissène Habré showed no compassion
toward the victims or any regret about the massacres and rapes that were
committed.”
