Julio Héctor Simón, the former federal police officer better known as ‘El Turco Julián’ who became notorious as a dictatorship-era torturer, has died in jail aged 84.
Simón, born in Buenos Aires City on August 12, 1940, was one of the practitioners of abusive techniques and torture at the infamous ‘El Olimpo’ clandestine detention centre during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship’s reign of terror.
Known for his fierce anti-Semitism and for wearing Swastikas and Nazi regalia, he died at the Unidad N° 34 del Servicio Penitenciario Federal in the Campo de Mayo army base while serving time for three convictions of crimes against humanity.
Two weeks ago, a court had rejected a request from his lawyers seeking his release under house arrest.
During the junta commanded by Jorge Rafael Videla, Emilio Masera and Orlando Agosti, Simón headed task forces entrusted with the abduction and disappearance of persons.
When Raúl Alfonsín reached the presidency and democracy was restored to Argentina, Simón fled to Brazil, where he worked in private security. Following the passage of the Punto Final (“Full stop”) and Obediencia Debida (“Due obedience”) amnesty legislation in 1986-1987, he returned to his native land.
In 2001, a federal court investigating a disappearance put Simón and another torturer in the spotlight. The court declared the laws unconstitutional and the case – “Simón, Julio Héctor y otros s/ privación ilegítima de la libertad” – rose to the Supreme Court.
Simón’s first conviction came in 2003 when Congress quashed the aforementioned laws preventing the trials of those responsible for crimes against humanity during the last dictatorship.
His second came in 2005 when City Tribunal Oral Federal (TOF) Court No. 5 sentenced him to 25 years in prison for the “illegal detention and torture” of José Poblete and Gertrudis Hlaczik and for “concealing” the eight-month baby born to that marriage.
Finally, in 2010, he was sentenced to a further 23 years in prison for the ‘Batallón 601’ case by City TOF No. 2, convicted of “kidnaps, tortures and the forced disappearance” of 181 people between the years 1979 and 1980 across a network of illegal detention centres known as “ABO” (sites ‘El Atlético,’ ‘Banco’ and ‘El Olimpo’.)
Simón’s use of Nazi regalia was common knowledge. According to several witnesses, “el Turco Julián” wore swastikas and boasted of his anti-Semitism while torturing Jewish victims.
Film director Jorge Taglioni, who was abducted along with his pregnant wife in 1978 by the junta, testified about the use of Nazi armbands and how Simón showed “greater savagery” when torturing the Jews detained at El Olimpo clandestine centre.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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