Former Uruguayan military man Ricardo Arab was prosecuted for the shooting of five militants of the Tupamaros National Liberation Movement (MLN-T) guerrilla movement during the last civil-military dictatorship in the South American country (1973-1985), judicial sources reported. .
Criminal judge Isaura Tórtora decided on Tuesday that Arab should be placed under house arrest because he was an accomplice in committing five serious crimes of murder, two crimes of deprivation of liberty and one crime of abuse of office against the detainees. and a crime of oppression and usurpation of marital status, says the verdict, accessed by AFP.
Arab, 82, is already serving house arrest for other crimes committed during the de facto government, including the particularly serious murder of María Claudia García de Gelman, the daughter-in-law of Argentine poet Juan Gelman.
This last case concerns the kidnapping of MLN-T fighters Graciela Estefanell, Héctor Brum and his pregnant wife María de los Angeles Corbo, and Floreal García and his wife Mirta in Buenos Aires on November 8, 1974 by Argentine and Uruguayan Hernández forces. The latter couple’s son, Amaral García, three years old, and Julio César Abreu, not affiliated with the MLN-T, were also arrested at the time.
According to Abreu’s report, they spent four days in a garage before being sent on a secret flight to Uruguay and taken to the “300 Carlos R” or “Infierno Chico” detention center in Montevideo, where they were tortured.
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On December 20, 1974, all MLN-T fighters were executed near the town of Soca, about 60 km east of Montevideo. His execution is linked to the death of Uruguayan colonel Ramón Trabal, who was assassinated in Paris a day earlier.
Abreu was released in the resort town of Marindia, near Montevideo, while little Amaral was given up for adoption to a few Argentine military agents. His birth family located him in Formosa, Argentina, in 1985, where his identity was restored.
Prosecutor Ricardo Perciballe, who specializes in crimes against humanity, requested Arab’s prosecution in February.
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“This is the accusation, the beginning of the trial itself,” Pablo Chargoñia, lawyer for the Luz Ibarburu Observatory, a network of organizations advocating for human rights related to the recent past in Uruguay, told TV Ciudad when commenting on Tortora’s decision celebrated.
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