http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5467818MADRID (Reuters) - An Argentine former navy captain, haggard and weak after a month on hunger strike, has gone on trial accused of pushing drugged political prisoners out of planes in the "dirty war" of Argentina's military government.
Adolfo Scilingo had his eyes closed and was held up by two police officers as he was brought into a Madrid court at the start of Spain's first genocide trial. Wrapped in a blanket, he slumped over his chair in the courtroom. snip
After the resumption, Scilingo covered his eyes and did not answer the judge.
Scilingo went to Spain voluntarily in 1997 to testify about his involvement in the "death flights" in the 1970s and faces charges of torture, murder, terrorism and genocide. The Madrid court has powers to try suspects for genocide committed anywhere, if there might have been Spanish victims.
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http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20041217T180000-0500_71591_OBS_THE_LONG_ARM_OF_THE_LAW_CLOSES_IN_ON_A_TYRANT.asp
The long arm of the law closes in on a tyrant
<snip>Just this week a judge in the capital, Santiago, slapped formal charges of homicide and kidnapping in one of the numerous cases arising out of abuses of human rights and of people's actual bodies during 17 years of brutal military dictatorship. The judge ordered General Pinochet held under house arrest while the case grinds on. snip
General Pinochet was head of the army in 1973 when Salvador Allende, a doctor, rode to power in a hotly-contested vote among several candidates. He started to introduce reforms of a socialist nature, which antagonised the extremely conservative Chilean business community and the traditional oligarchy, as well as the upper echelons of the armed forces. On that fateful September 11, forces loyal to Pinochet attacked the presidential palace, La Moneda, and put an end to Allende's crusade to bring about improvements in the lives of ordinary Chileans.
Very soon after that coup, the military, the police and the various secret agencies embarked on a campaign of persecution. They rounded up students, workers, peasants, intellectuals and others for questioning and torture. Many were never heard from again, and thousands of people fled the country for places like Europe and North America. snip
Those people also can't forget the part played by the United States, especially its then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. At the time he actually suggested that Chileans had no right to choose the kind of government they did. The hand of the US through its various clandestine operations was quite patent, and several prominent companies also played parts in the nightmarish developments. Now, even Kissinger has to watch where he goes, lest a judge somewhere tries to slap an injunction upon him, taking a cue from the Spanish jurist.
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