New law causes rush of trials

Press, 9 January 1987, Page 2

New law causes rush of trials

NZPA-Reuter Buenos Aires Argentine courts are rushing to bring military officers to trial for alleged human rights abuses before a new law barring such trials takes effect, according to legal experts. Twenty officers accused of atrocities committed during the former military government are scheduled to testify before February 22, when the •law giving immunity from prosecution takes effect — and the courts may soon bring dozens more to trial.

“The judges are irritated. They are acting now because they see that the ’full stop’ law depends on their inaction,” said Julio Raffo, an attorney for several alleged victims of rights abuses. The new, so-called “full stop” law passed last month by Congress on the urging of President Raul

Alfonsin, bars trial for nearly all military officers accused of past atrocities if they have not been called to testify by February 22. Mr Alfonsin said the law was needed to put a stop to the “unending suspicion” hanging over military officers, about 600 of whom have been formally charged with murder, torture, kidnapping and other crimes, dating from Argentina’s eight-year military regime.

“These cases are now the exclusive responsibility of the judges. It is all in their hands,” said the State prosecutor, Julio Cesar Strassera, who last year handled the prosecution of nine former military rulers accused of rights abuses.

A civil court in Bahia Blanca, south of Buenos Aires, has . begun closed hearings into 111 cases of human rights abuses involving at least four mili-

tary officers. The cases include at least 24 deaths and 58 “disappearances,” or cases of persons kidnapped by security forces during the military regime and never seen alive again.

. Some 9000 people disappeared during the military government’s campaign against Leftist guerrillas in the late 19705, according to a commission formed by Mr Alfonsin after he took office at the close of the military regime in 1983.

Thousands of cases of alleged rights abuses are now before courts in Buenos Aires, Tucuman and four other cities. So far, 10 former military and police officers have been convicted for human rights abuses, including the former President Jorge Videla, and a former Navy commander, both now serving life prison sentences.