Australian judge says woman can be extradited to Chile
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 20:26 EDT, 23 June 2021 | UPDATED: 20:42 EDT, 23 June 2021
SYDNEY (AP) - An Australian judge on Thursday dismissed a woman´s appeal against extradition to Chile, where she is wanted on kidnapping charges dating to Augusto Pinochet´s military dictatorship in the 1970s.
Adriana Rivas had appealed against a Sydney magistrate´s decision in October that she could be extradited on allegations that she kidnapped seven people in 1976 and 1977, including Communist Party leader Victor Diaz.
She was an assistant to Manuel Contreras, the head of the DINA secret police during Pinochet´s dictatorship. Rivas, 68, denies ever meeting the alleged victims, who have never been found.
Federal Court Justice Wendy Abraham in Sydney ruled that Rivas could be extradited on the seven charges of aggravated kidnap. She can appeal the judgment before a full bench of the Federal Court.
. . .
In 2014, Rivas told Australia´s Special Broadcasting Service that she was innocent of the charges, but defended the use of torture in Chile at the time as necessary.
"They had to break the people - it has happened all over the world, not only in Chile," she said.
. . .
FILE - In this April 2, 2019, file photo, members of the Chilean Australian community from the
National Campaign for Truth and Justice in Chile are seen outside the Central Local Court in
Sydney, Australia. An Australian judge, Thursday, June 24, 2021, has dismissed a woman's
appeal against extradition to Chile where she is wanted on kidnapping charges dating to Augusto
Pinochet's military dictatorship in the 1970s. (Dean Lewins/AAPImage via AP, File)
More:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-9719465/Australian-judge-says-woman-extradited-Chile.html
~ ~ ~
Rivas with her boss, deadly Manuel Contreras, head of Chilean secret police
Adriana Rivas: Aide of Pinochet-era spy chief held in Australia
Published20 February 2019
Australian police have arrested a Chilean woman living in Sydney over her alleged involvement in a kidnapping during the military rule of Gen Augusto Pinochet in the South American country.
Adriana Rivas worked as a secretary for the infamous chief of Chile's secret police force, Manuel Contreras.
Contreras died in 2015 while serving a sentence of more than 500 years for human rights abuses.
Some 3,000 Pinochet opponents were killed during the 1970s and 1980s.
. . .
'Best days of my life'
Ms Rivas, who is now 66, worked for Manuel Contreras from 1973 to 1976 at the National Intelligence Directorate (Dina), the secret police force founded by Gen Pinochet to hunt down his political opponents.
More than 40,000 people were politically persecuted during the Pinochet era, which lasted from 1973 to 1990.
The National Intelligence Directorate was at the centre of Gen Pinochet's campaign to silence opposition to his rule after he seized power in a military coup in September 1973.
Its agents abducted, tortured, killed and "disappeared" thousands of people before the agency was replaced by the equally brutal CNI, an army intelligence battalion.
In a 2013 interview with Australian broadcaster SBS, Ms Rivas described her years at the Dina, as "the best of my life".
. . .
While Ms Rivas has denied taking part in any torture sessions, witnesses alleged in interviews given to documentary filmmaker Lissette Orozco that she was one of Dina's "most brutal torturers" who allegedly played a key role in the elite Lautaro Brigade, which was tasked with killing the leadership of Chile's underground Communist Party.
More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-47303788
= new reply since forum marked as read
