Adolfo Scilingo

Adolfo Scilingo (born 1947) is a former Argentine naval officer who is currently serving 30 years (the legally applied limit, although he was sentenced to 640 years) in a Spanish prison after being convicted on April 19, 2005 for crimes against humanity, including extra-judicial execution.

Charges

Scilingo was charged under Spain's universal jurisdiction laws by investigating magistrate Baltazar Garzón with genocide, 30 counts of murder, 93 of causing injury, 255 of terrorism and 286 of torture. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4173215.stm] He denied the charges but initially refused to plead, claiming to be unwell. Doctors ruled Scilingo was fit to stand trial.

The murder charges related to 30 drugged political prisoners thrown out of government jets during Galtieri's military junta's Dirty War against leftist insurgents between 1976 and 1983. Scilingo had earlier attracted great notoriety for publicly confessing to journalist Horacio Verbitsky in c. 1996, to participating in the so-called death flights, the first of a series of public confessions collectively called in Argentina the 'Scilingo effect' (Feitlowitz 1999). Scilingo was serving a jail term for fraud in Argentina at the time.

Judgement

The court found guilty of murder, ruling that he had command responsibility over jettisoning 30 naked, drugged political dissidents into the Atlantic Ocean. He was also convicted of the genocide, torture, assault and terrorism charges. He received a 640-year jail term, but can only serve Spain's maximum 30-year term. It seems likely he may died of old age before he serves 30 years.

The Spanish case is remarkable as it is the first use of a new Spanish law whereby people can be prosecuted for crimes committed outside Spain. Scilingo's confession prompted Argentines residing in Spain to press charges against him. It also led to Chileans living in Spain to file charges against their former dictator, Augusto Pinochet, who was later arrested in Britain at the request of Judge Baltasar Garzon.

On 4 July 2007, the Supreme Court of Spain increased Scilingo's prison sentence to 1084 years and altered the conviction from crimes against humanity to that of torture, terrorism, and attempted genocide. [http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/legal-procedures/adolfo_scilingo_258.html] .

ee also

* Alberto Ángel Zanchetta, a military chaplain who reported to Scilingo

References

* Jonathan Mann, [http://www4.cnn.com/WORLD/9603/argentina.war/index.html "Macabre new details emerge about Argentina's 'dirty war'"] , CNN, March 23 1996.
* BBC News Online [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4173215.stm] , [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4460871.stm]
* Margarite Feitlowitz, "A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture", 1999.
* Horacio Verbitsky, "Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior", 2005.