An annual report detailing successful prosecutions for crimes against humanity committed prior to and during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship’s era in power shows that 20 convictions were secured last year.
Assessing a full year of President Javier Milei’s government (the report runs December to December), 14 sentences “adding up to 20 convictions and 12 acquittals” were handed down, according to the special Procuraduría de Crímenes contra la Humanidad (PCCH) unit.
The office, led by federal prosecutor María Ángeles Ramos, said that since 2006 (the year in which the trials of crimes against humanity committed by state terrorism were resumed), there have been 1,195 convictions and 332 sentences” in total.
The text also clarified that there are still “613 persons detained,” of whom 81 percent “remain under house arrest” with “65 cases” awaiting trial, of which “the date has been set” for three percent.
“The document provides data of our own elaboration from the systematic processing and analysis of the information supplied by specialised prosecutors nationwide, updated to last December 2, on the situation of the people on trial and the advance of the judicial cases,” indicates the PCCH text.
The report further highlighted that during these last 18 years public prosecutors have investigated “3,775 people for crimes against humanity with 668 cases processed.” Along the same lines, it detailed that during last year (until the filing of the report) “15 trials began,” of which “seven continue with sentences already given in eight.”
“The number of people on trial and awaiting sentence represent 46 percent. Of these 370 are on trial, 161 with lack of evidence and 100 acquitted,” said the document.
It was also informed that “465 have been summoned for questioning while 70 people have already testified” but without their trial situation being defined.
In conclusion, the text summed up percentages for the 370 people on trial – 32 percent had to be brought to trial, 34 percent are on trial for the first time, while 33 percent are on the run with extradition denied in 11 of those cases (one awaits extradition, three have been located while 18 continue with whereabouts unknown).
“Of the 3,775 people investigated for crimes against humanity, 1,450 (38 percent) face trial in freedom while 613 (16 percent) are detained with 81 percent under house arrest, 10 percent lodged in federal or provincial penitentiaries and nine percent detained on military premises, mostly Unidad Penitenciaria N°34 at the Campo de Mayo garrison. There is also one person detained by a federal security force,” concluded the report.
– TIMES/NA
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