An Argentine judge has struck down amnesty laws protecting hundreds of soldiers accused of torture, murder and kidnapping during Argentina's military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, potentially opening the way for a wave of trials, reported the Washington Post newspaper.
Federal Judge Gabriel Cavallo said in his landmark ruling in Buenos Aires that immunity laws preventing prosecution of all but the highest-ranking officers in the military junta that ruled Argentina during its "dirty war" against suspected left-wing dissidents are unconstitutional because they violate international human rights treaties signed by Argentina.
The ruling immediately applies to 11 former officers in the one case before Cavallo, the 1978 murder-kidnapping of a couple and their 8-month-old daughter, said the paper.
But Argentine legal experts said the verdict could set a precedent for hundreds of other cases related to more than 10,000 dissidents and other citizens who disappeared or were murdered during the "dirty war." – Albawaba.com
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