Chilean court-martial CASHIERED MEN TO DIE

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33601, 1 August 1974, Page 17

Chilean court-martial CASHIERED MEN TO DIE

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SANTIAGO, July 31. A Chilean Air Force court-martial has passed death sentences on two cashiered officers, a sergeant, and a civilian on charges of treason and sedition during the rule of the late Marxist President, Dr Salvadore Allende.

The condemned men are: Colonel Ernesto Galaz Guzman, Captain Raul Vergara Menses, Sergeant Belarmino Constanzo Merino, and Carlos Lazo Frias, a lawyer. The prosecution had asked for a life sentence for the latter, who was deputy chairman of the Central Bank at the time Dr Allende’s Government was overthrown by the military coup d’etat last September. Altogether 57 Chilean Air Force offices and men and 10 civilians were accused in the mass trial, which lasted two months and ended in June, since when the tribunal of seven senior officers has been at work on the texts of its judgments. The prosecutor demanded death sentences for six of the former airmen, accusing them of high treason, and prison terms ranging up to life imprisonment for the other defendants. The accused airmen varied in

rank from conscripted aircraftman to general.

Three of the accused for whom the prosecution had asked death sentences were given lesser penalties: Captain Carlos Carbacho Astorga was given a life sentence; Sergeant Mario O’Ryan Munoz received 10 years; and Private Ricardo Galvez Ulloa, three years.