By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Published: July 25, 2008
RIO DE JANEIRO — A court in Argentina sentenced a notorious former military leader to life in prison for atrocities committed in 1977 at a clandestine torture center used by the military dictatorship where only 17 of more than 2,200 political prisoners survived.
Luciano Benjamín Menéndez, the former commander of the regional Third Army Corps in Córdoba during the military dictatorship, oversaw the kidnapping, torture and murder of four activists who protested against the military government that lasted from 1976 to 1983. The atrocities occurred at La Perla detention center in Córdoba, the biggest in the province at the time.
After a trial lasting almost two months, the court on Thursday also sentenced six other former military officers and one civilian for crimes committed during the military regime. Four of them were also given life sentences, with remaining three receiving sentences ranging from 18 to 22 years in prison, Argentine newspapers reported.
Mr. Menéndez, 81, was stone-faced and silent as the televised verdict was read to loud cheers inside and outside the courtroom, where hundreds of people waved flags and placards commemorating the victims ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/world/americas/25argentina.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin