Brazil wants Rousseff's alleged torturers tried

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil wants Rousseff's alleged torturers tried
By BRADLEY BROOKS
The Associated Press
Thursday, November 4, 2010; 4:37 PM

SAO PAULO -- Brazilian prosecutors filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking damages against four dictatorship-era agents accused of killings and kidnappings. One is a former army captain linked to the torture of President-elect Dilma Rousseff when she was a guerrilla in 1970.

The civil lawsuit also involves the case of a rebel who was killed while in custody after leading the 1969 kidnapping of former U.S. Ambassador Charles Elbrick.

Brazil's Supreme Court recently upheld a 1979 amnesty law pardoning both civilians and military personnel for alleged crimes committed under the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. But prosecutors argue the law does not prevent charges under civil law and say they are stepping up such efforts. Three other civil cases were filed this year by the Sao Paulo prosecutors.

The three former soldiers and a former military policeman in the new lawsuit were tied to Brazil's Operation Bandeirante, a repressive secret paramilitary police group that rounded up leftist rebels starting in 1969, prosecutors allege.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/04/AR2010110405429.html