Former army intelligence officer Horacio Barcos was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the Tribunal Oral Federal in Santa Fe, Argentina on Monday in the culmination of his prosecution for alleged crimes against humanity committed during the Dirty War, presided over by Jorge Rafael Videla‘s military dictatorship. Barcos was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the crimes of illegal detention (aggravated by the use of violence and threats) and of inflicting suffering (aggravated by the political persecution of the victims). These charges were based on Barcos’ detention of an Argentine couple in a clandestine detention center over a period of 15 days in 1978. Based on this conviction, Barcos is permanently barred from exercising public functions. An additional four years were added to his sentence based on his conviction, before a different court, for extortion. [CNN; 30Noticias; El Litoral]
For more on the Argentine prosecution of human rights abuses of the Dirty War, see the Domestic Prosecutions and Civil Suits page of this blog.