A Spanish court has sentenced an Argentine former navy captain to 640 years in jail for crimes against humanity, convicting him of throwing political prisoners from planes during Argentina's "dirty war."
Adolfo Scilingo, 58, was put on trial for genocide, the first in Spain under laws allowing the prosecution of crimes committed in another country, but the court ruled that "crimes against humanity" was the correct legal term.
Scilingo's court-appointed lawyer said his client was unfairly made to answer for all the atrocities carried out during the 1976-83 war by a military junta fighting a leftist insurgency. He said he would appeal the verdict.
Scilingo was found guilty of helping to kill 30 people on two "death flights" in which drugged and naked prisoners were pushed out of planes into the sea.
"In a special morbid joke they made them (the prisoners) dance to Brazilian music," the sentence said. It also detailed how officers tortured victims with electric shocks that burnt flesh in sessions referred to as "barbecues."
Scilingo received 30 terms of 21 years in jail for the deaths and five years for each of the other counts. However, under Spanish law he cannot serve more than 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 9,138 years.
Amnesty International said the ruling "confirms a fundamental norm of international law, that all states have universal jurisdiction to prosecute crimes against humanity."
"In addition it counteracts the impunity that has traditionally reigned in Argentina," the group said.
In Buenos Aires, Taty Almeida of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo said the 600-plus year sentence was symbolic. The Mothers marched silently with white scarves on their heads during Argentina's dictatorship, protesting the abduction of their children.
"What is important is the sentence to life in prison which is what we wanted to see happen here in Argentina," said Almeida, whose son disappeared when he was 20.
Scilingo, who came to Spain voluntarily in 1997 to testify, told Spanish investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon and reporters in dozens of interviews that he took part in the "death flights," but he later retracted the story and protested his innocence.
Scilingo sat with head bowed while the sentence was read and was then taken away by guards. A man in the gallery cried "murderer, rot in jail."
Malou Cerutti, whose husband and father disappeared in the "dirty war," said with tears in her eyes she felt peace, but also immense pain, as a judge detailed Scilingo's crimes.
Spain's High Court has asserted powers to try suspects for genocide, terrorism or torture committed anywhere in the world if Spanish victims are involved.
"The conviction of Scilingo shows that the prosecution of crimes against humanity is an obligation incumbent upon all states," the Argentina-based Center for Legal and Social Studies said in a statement.
Central to the plaintiffs' case was that Scilingo knew about the horrors taking place around him at the Navy Mechanical School - the notorious ESMA - in Buenos Aires. The school was used as a detention and torture center under military rule.