http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=420255
Flight into danger: how a suspected torturer was snared in a landmark for
human rights
By Tim Gaynor in Madrid
30 June 2003
He is a silver-haired exiled Argentinean businessman who lived a quiet life
in Mexico, running the country's national car registry. But yesterday the
former naval officer was bundled into a bullet-proof vest, handcuffed and
flown in a Spanish air force Boeing 707 across the Atlantic to face genocide
and terrorism charges in Spain.
Ricardo Cavallo, accused of being one of the worst torturers of Argentina's
"dirty war" between 1976 and 1983, exhausted all avenues of appeal last
week, when Mexico's Supreme Court agreed that he could be extradited to
Spain.
Mr Cavallo had lived untroubled for years in Mexico until a newspaper
challenged his identity and he was detained in 2000 in the Mexican resort of
Cancun, on his way to Argentina. He had been accused by five former
political prisoners of being a former "dirty war" intelligence agent who
went by the aliases "Serpico" and "Marcelo".
The case has been hailed by human rights activists as a landmark. He will
become the first person to face trial for crimes not committed in the
country of jurisdiction. Mr Cavallo will therefore be unprotected by an
amnesty in his native country offered to those accused of repression under
the dictatorship of General Leopoldo Galtieri.
Up to 30,000 people were killed or "disappeared" in the Argentine military's
war against leftist guerrillas and their sympathisers. Many were tortured,
drugged and in some cases thrown from aircraft into the River Plate or the
Atlantic Ocean.
Mr Cavallo, 51, is accused of having worked as a member of a crack
operational unit in the notorious School of Naval Mechanics in Buenos Aires,
a secret torture centre under General Galtieri.
Accompanied by officers from Interpol and the Spanish police, Mr Cavallo was
driven from Madrid's Torrejon de Ardoz air base in a convoy of police vans
to appear at a specially convened session of the National Court yesterday
morning, where he was arraigned by the crusading Spanish judge Baltasar
Garzon.
Mr Garzon campaigned unsuccessfully to bring the former Chilean dictator
General Augusto Pinochet to trial in Spain five years ago. But in the
Cavallo case, the extradition request was filed under the terms of a
bilateral extradition treaty, rather than an international rights agreement,
which led to the failed effort to bring Pinochet to trial in 1998. At
yesterday's five-minute session, during which the bespectacled defendant
declined to testify, Mr Garzon handed over a 200-page report in which Mr
Cavallo is accused of 200 cases of disappearances, 120 of kidnappings and
100 of torture dating from the "dirty war".
He will be tried in Spain for his alleged involvement in the torture of
Thelma Jara, and for the murder of the Spaniards Monica Jauregui and Elba
Delia Aldaya, and will face further charges of falsifying documents,
according to the Spanish media.
Manuel Olle, a lawyer representing the victims, said the examining
magistrate would call for the testimony of Marcelo Hernandez, an Argentinian
who was tortured at the School of Naval Mechanics. Mr Hernandez, who was
kept and tortured for two years at the centre, said: "I never dreamt of a
day like this. The type of men who have been responsible for many deaths
cannot be free."
As the prison van rolled up to the court, a group of some 100 Argentinian
human rights activists, exiles and torture victims chanted, waving placards
with the message "Universal Justice for the Victims of Torture" and
"Extradition for the 48 Argentinian Authors of Genocide".
"It's a historic moment for all humanity," Ricardo Hausdorff, an Argentinian
trades union and human rights activist, said outside the courthouse. "At
long last a precedent has been set so that justice can reach any point in
the world."
As excited demonstrators jostled with the police, Mr Hausdorff, 45, said
exiled Argentinians regarded the detention as "a positive first step. The
names of a further 48 Argentinians have come to light [in investigations of
rights abuses] and we want them to be brought to book."
For some gathered in the heat outside the courthouse in central Madrid, the
arraignment raised hope that it would challenge the longstanding impunity
enjoyed by former torturers and dirty war functionaries within Argentina.
The documentary film maker Alcides Chiasa, 55, told The Independent he was
tortured in Argentina's notorious Pozo de Quilmes detention centre "every
six to eight hours" for a period of one month after he was kidnapped by
military authorities in 1977. "They attached electrodes to me and also gave
me 'the submarine' - a technique where they hold you underwater until you
nearly drown - and they kidnapped my wife and father," he said.
"Cavallo's arraignment opens the door to justice and a full civil
investigation in Argentina, so that the families of the disappeared can
finally bury them," said Mr Chiasa as he waited for the van bearing Mr
Cavallo to arrive at the court. "It gives us the hope that, after so many
decades, we are finally going to see justice."
A spokesman for the National Court said Mr Cavallo had denied all knowledge
of the crimes for which he was charged, and refused to sign a court document
setting out his rights. Mr Garzon then adjourned the court until later in
the day to give Mr Cavallo time to read the indictment against him.
Mr Cavallo, who was described as calm and collected at the hearing, has
acknowledged that he was in Argentina's military, but he has denied
involvement in torture. He was kept in a Madrid jail last night.
The Mexican Supreme Court, which issued its decision on 10 June, threw out
torture charges against Mr Cavallo because the statute of limitations had
expired.
Mr Garzon, 48, is one of six investigating judges for Spain's National
Court. His function is to investigate the cases that are assigned to him by
the court, gathering evidence and evaluating whether the case should be
brought to trial. He does not try the cases.
The judge, who was nominated for the Nobel peace prize in 2002, has launched
formal investigations into human rights abuses committed under the former
military dictatorships of Chile and Argentina, and has brought charges
against officials for the deaths of Spaniards in both countries.
Mr Cavallo is one of 98 military and civilian figures of the Argentine
regime indicted by Judge Garzon last year. But most of them live in
Argentina, where they are protected by the local amnesty laws.
Mr Garzon has been in charge of some of Spain's biggest cases, involving
drug trafficking, corruption, the Basque terrorist group Eta and the GAL, a
shady official hit-squad formed to fight Eta.
THE CLOSING NET
HISSÉNE HABRE
Known as "Africa's Pinochet", the exiled ruler of Chad was indicted on
charges of torture and crimes against humanity by a court in Senegal in
February 2000. In March 2001 the case was dropped after a ruling that
Senegal could not prosecute crimes beyond its borders. Buthe might still be
tried in Belgium, which is seeking his extradition.
AUGUSTO PINOCHET
In October 1998 the former Chilean dictator was arrested in London for
extradition to Spain to face charges over the murder of Spanish nationals
during his rule from 1973 to 1990. The extradition was stopped after it was
ruled he was medically unfit to stand trial. He returned to Chile in March
2000, where he has been declared mentally unfit for trial.
ARIEL SHARON
Israel's Prime Minister has been accused of responsibility for the 1982
massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon,
when he was Defence Minister.In February the Belgian Supreme Court decided
to allow a case to be brought against Mr Sharon. Planned changes to Belgian
law mean the case will not go ahead.
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
On trial at the United Nations tribunal in The Hague, Slobodan Milosevic is
the first serving leader to be indicted for war crimes. The former Yugoslav
president was arrested in April 2002 - two years after his indictment - and
is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in Bosnia, Croatia and
Kosovo.
Upon his release the anointed exec. branch has a few job
openings(*) for this sack of shit, but only if he is guilty, at
Camp-X.
(*) that is he is a sack of shit only if he is found guilty and the
job openings are available only if he is found guilty.
Win-Win situation all 'round, eh.
JHall.
"centurion" <centurion@no-spam> wrote in message
news:XCPLa.7$0R3.159@no-spam
> http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=420255
> Flight into danger: how a suspected torturer was snared in a landmark for
> human rights
> By Tim Gaynor in Madrid
> 30 June 2003
>
>
> He is a silver-haired exiled Argentinean businessman who lived a quiet
life
> in Mexico, running the country's national car registry. But yesterday the
> former naval officer was bundled into a bullet-proof vest, handcuffed and
> flown in a Spanish air force Boeing 707 across the Atlantic to face
genocide
> and terrorism charges in Spain.
>
> Ricardo Cavallo, accused of being one of the worst torturers of
Argentina's
> "dirty war" between 1976 and 1983, exhausted all avenues of appeal last
> week, when Mexico's Supreme Court agreed that he could be extradited to
> Spain.
>
> Mr Cavallo had lived untroubled for years in Mexico until a newspaper
> challenged his identity and he was detained in 2000 in the Mexican resort
of
> Cancun, on his way to Argentina. He had been accused by five former
> political prisoners of being a former "dirty war" intelligence agent who
> went by the aliases "Serpico" and "Marcelo".
>
> The case has been hailed by human rights activists as a landmark. He will
> become the first person to face trial for crimes not committed in the
> country of jurisdiction. Mr Cavallo will therefore be unprotected by an
> amnesty in his native country offered to those accused of repression under
> the dictatorship of General Leopoldo Galtieri.
>
> Up to 30,000 people were killed or "disappeared" in the Argentine
military's
> war against leftist guerrillas and their sympathisers. Many were tortured,
> drugged and in some cases thrown from aircraft into the River Plate or the
> Atlantic Ocean.
>
> Mr Cavallo, 51, is accused of having worked as a member of a crack
> operational unit in the notorious School of Naval Mechanics in Buenos
Aires,
> a secret torture centre under General Galtieri.
>
> Accompanied by officers from Interpol and the Spanish police, Mr Cavallo
was
> driven from Madrid's Torrejon de Ardoz air base in a convoy of police vans
> to appear at a specially convened session of the National Court yesterday
> morning, where he was arraigned by the crusading Spanish judge Baltasar
> Garzon.
>
> Mr Garzon campaigned unsuccessfully to bring the former Chilean dictator
> General Augusto Pinochet to trial in Spain five years ago. But in the
> Cavallo case, the extradition request was filed under the terms of a
> bilateral extradition treaty, rather than an international rights
agreement,
> which led to the failed effort to bring Pinochet to trial in 1998. At
> yesterday's five-minute session, during which the bespectacled defendant
> declined to testify, Mr Garzon handed over a 200-page report in which Mr
> Cavallo is accused of 200 cases of disappearances, 120 of kidnappings and
> 100 of torture dating from the "dirty war".
>
> He will be tried in Spain for his alleged involvement in the torture of
> Thelma Jara, and for the murder of the Spaniards Monica Jauregui and Elba
> Delia Aldaya, and will face further charges of falsifying documents,
> according to the Spanish media.
>
> Manuel Olle, a lawyer representing the victims, said the examining
> magistrate would call for the testimony of Marcelo Hernandez, an
Argentinian
> who was tortured at the School of Naval Mechanics. Mr Hernandez, who was
> kept and tortured for two years at the centre, said: "I never dreamt of a
> day like this. The type of men who have been responsible for many deaths
> cannot be free."
>
> As the prison van rolled up to the court, a group of some 100 Argentinian
> human rights activists, exiles and torture victims chanted, waving
placards
> with the message "Universal Justice for the Victims of Torture" and
> "Extradition for the 48 Argentinian Authors of Genocide".
>
> "It's a historic moment for all humanity," Ricardo Hausdorff, an
Argentinian
> trades union and human rights activist, said outside the courthouse. "At
> long last a precedent has been set so that justice can reach any point in
> the world."
>
> As excited demonstrators jostled with the police, Mr Hausdorff, 45, said
> exiled Argentinians regarded the detention as "a positive first step. The
> names of a further 48 Argentinians have come to light [in investigations
of
> rights abuses] and we want them to be brought to book."
>
> For some gathered in the heat outside the courthouse in central Madrid,
the
> arraignment raised hope that it would challenge the longstanding impunity
> enjoyed by former torturers and dirty war functionaries within Argentina.
>
> The documentary film maker Alcides Chiasa, 55, told The Independent he was
> tortured in Argentina's notorious Pozo de Quilmes detention centre "every
> six to eight hours" for a period of one month after he was kidnapped by
> military authorities in 1977. "They attached electrodes to me and also
gave
> me 'the submarine' - a technique where they hold you underwater until you
> nearly drown - and they kidnapped my wife and father," he said.
>
> "Cavallo's arraignment opens the door to justice and a full civil
> investigation in Argentina, so that the families of the disappeared can
> finally bury them," said Mr Chiasa as he waited for the van bearing Mr
> Cavallo to arrive at the court. "It gives us the hope that, after so many
> decades, we are finally going to see justice."
>
> A spokesman for the National Court said Mr Cavallo had denied all
knowledge
> of the crimes for which he was charged, and refused to sign a court
document
> setting out his rights. Mr Garzon then adjourned the court until later in
> the day to give Mr Cavallo time to read the indictment against him.
>
> Mr Cavallo, who was described as calm and collected at the hearing, has
> acknowledged that he was in Argentina's military, but he has denied
> involvement in torture. He was kept in a Madrid jail last night.
>
> The Mexican Supreme Court, which issued its decision on 10 June, threw out
> torture charges against Mr Cavallo because the statute of limitations had
> expired.
>
> Mr Garzon, 48, is one of six investigating judges for Spain's National
> Court. His function is to investigate the cases that are assigned to him
by
> the court, gathering evidence and evaluating whether the case should be
> brought to trial. He does not try the cases.
>
> The judge, who was nominated for the Nobel peace prize in 2002, has
launched
> formal investigations into human rights abuses committed under the former
> military dictatorships of Chile and Argentina, and has brought charges
> against officials for the deaths of Spaniards in both countries.
>
> Mr Cavallo is one of 98 military and civilian figures of the Argentine
> regime indicted by Judge Garzon last year. But most of them live in
> Argentina, where they are protected by the local amnesty laws.
>
> Mr Garzon has been in charge of some of Spain's biggest cases, involving
> drug trafficking, corruption, the Basque terrorist group Eta and the GAL,
a
> shady official hit-squad formed to fight Eta.
>
> THE CLOSING NET
>
> HISSÉNE HABRE
>
> Known as "Africa's Pinochet", the exiled ruler of Chad was indicted on
> charges of torture and crimes against humanity by a court in Senegal in
> February 2000. In March 2001 the case was dropped after a ruling that
> Senegal could not prosecute crimes beyond its borders. Buthe might still
be
> tried in Belgium, which is seeking his extradition.
>
> AUGUSTO PINOCHET
>
> In October 1998 the former Chilean dictator was arrested in London for
> extradition to Spain to face charges over the murder of Spanish nationals
> during his rule from 1973 to 1990. The extradition was stopped after it
was
> ruled he was medically unfit to stand trial. He returned to Chile in March
> 2000, where he has been declared mentally unfit for trial.
>
> ARIEL SHARON
>
> Israel's Prime Minister has been accused of responsibility for the 1982
> massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in
Lebanon,
> when he was Defence Minister.In February the Belgian Supreme Court decided
> to allow a case to be brought against Mr Sharon. Planned changes to
Belgian
> law mean the case will not go ahead.
>
> SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
>
> On trial at the United Nations tribunal in The Hague, Slobodan Milosevic
is
> the first serving leader to be indicted for war crimes. The former
Yugoslav
> president was arrested in April 2002 - two years after his indictment -
and
> is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity in Bosnia, Croatia and
> Kosovo.
>
>