Argentina close to verdict on junta's alleged theft of death-camp babies
Argentina close to verdict on junta's alleged theft of death-camp babies
Dictators Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone face long sentences for alleged plot over political captives' children
Uki Goni, in Buenos Aires
The Guardian, Wednesday 4 July 2012
After 12 years and hundreds of hours of testimony an Argentine court is finally poised to pass judgment on former dictators accused of orchestrating the "theft" of hundreds of babies born to political prisoners in the 1970s.
Jorge Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Bignone, dictators who led the bloody military junta that ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983, face long sentences for allegedly masterminding what prosecutors hope to prove was a predetermined plan to "rescue" new-born babies from their "terrorist" mothers.
After the mothers were killed the babies were handed over to be raised by military families according to the "western and Christian" values that the generals claimed to defend.
Some lower ranking officers have already been convicted for taking the babies. This trial is set to decide whether the crimes were part of a systematic plan ordered from above.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/05/argentina-trial-junta-theft-babies
