Italy seeks 139 suspects from dirty wars

Italy is requesting the extradition of 139 former South American leaders and their underlings over the disappearance, torture and death of Italians who were caught up in a crackdown on dissent in the 1970s and '80s, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Those sought were involved in the military dictatorships of Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay and are accused in the kidnapping and murder of 25 Italian dissidents, said lead prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo.

Suspects include Argentina's former junta leader Jorge Videla and Uruguay's former dictator Juan Bordaberry — both currently under house arrest and being prosecuted in their native countries.

Capaldo said he expects replies to the extradition requests in the coming months.

In an interview with The Associated Press, he said court proceedings could go ahead even without extraditions, as Italian law allows suspects to be tried in absentia.

"The families of the victims who did not receive justice have come to us because in their countries no trials were held for these facts," Capaldo said. "Even after so many years, there is a need for justice."

Other European countries have tried to try those allegedly involved in the so-called "dirty wars." Their efforts have often failed or resulted in convictions in absentia.

All those named in Capaldo's probe are under investigation for kidnapping and multiple counts of aggravated murder. If convicted in Italy, they could get life sentences.

"I hope there will be a collaboration that will help the world's public opinion understand what happened in those years," Capaldo said, adding that he has already had informal contacts with magistrates in South America and in other European countries that have sought to prosecute dirty war suspects.

Capaldo said he began his investigation in 1998 following complaints by the victims' relatives and slowly widened the probe to include not only those materially responsible for the crimes but also the leaders and officers who orchestrated a region-wide search for leftist opponents.

Under the plan, known as Operation Condor, the authoritarian governments that dominated South America worked together — with secret help from U.S. intelligence agencies — to crack down on rebels and political dissidents, resulting in the death and disappearance of unknown thousands.

Officials sought by Capaldo include former Argentine navy chief Adm. Emilio Eduardo Massera, who was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison in Argentina. He was later pardoned by former President Carlos Menem. Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was also under investigation until his death in 2006.

In Chile, Viviana Diaz, spokeswoman for an association of relatives of dissidents who disappeared under Pinochet, said "the Chilean state must now cooperate, and those involved in Operation Condor, or their lawyers, must appear ... in Italy."

Riccardo Noury, a spokesman for the Italian chapter of Amnesty International, welcomed Italy's extradition bid and said that in recent years there has been "less resistance" over requests for international cooperation in human rights cases.

The Italian victims listed in the case include Juan Montiglio, a guard of Chilean President Salvador Allende who was arrested, tortured and killed during the 1973 coup staged by Pinochet, Capaldo said. Also investigated was the death of a former priest in Chile and the disappearance of a member of an Argentine leftist guerrilla group seized in 1980 at Rio de Janeiro's airport.

So far, Capaldo's probe has yielded only one arrest: Nestor Jorge Fernandez Troccoli, a former navy intelligence officer from Uruguay who recently became an Italian citizen and resident, and was arrested last month near the southern city of Salerno. Capaldo plans to seek charges against him for the disappearance of six Italian dissidents in Uruguay.

Troccoli's lawyer, Adolfo Domingo Scarano, said that the 60-year-old former officer had acknowledged conducting interrogations during Bordaberry's regime but was not involved in or aware of any kidnappings, torture or killings.

"There is no valid proof for any of the accusations," Scarano said by telephone.

Italy has received an extradition request for Troccoli from Uruguay, but the Justice Ministry, which rules on such requests, is likely to give precedence to the Italian trial, Capaldo said.

Several of those being sought by Italy are also facing prosecution at home for human rights abuses.

Argentine authorities have generally opposed granting such extradition requests, saying prosecution at home takes precedence in cases of suspected crimes committed on Argentine soil.

Videla is under house arrest in Buenos Aires while he is prosecuted on a range of human rights charges, and already has numerous pending extradition requests from European nations.

Bordaberry, who seized control of Uruguay with military backing during a 1973 coup, was detained in late 2006 and faces 14 homicide charges. The 79-year-old is under house arrest because of health problems. His lawyer Diego Viana said he had not been notified of a formal extradition request and that it would likely be held up by a monthlong annual court recess.

Health problems also complicate any attempt to extradite Massera, now 82. After a stroke in 2002, Massera won a court ruling that he was mentally unfit for trial on charges in the case involving the taking of babies from captive prisoners, many of whom later went missing.

Italy has gone after dirty war suspects before. In March, a court gave life sentences to five former members of Argentina's military tried in absentia for murdering three Italians in the 1970s.

Spain attempted to try Pinochet, having him arrested in London in 1998 on a warrant issued by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon. Pinochet was later ruled too frail to stand trial and allowed to return home. When he died, Pinochet faced trial on scores of criminal charges in Chile and was under indictment for human rights abuses.

Garzon also indicted Argentine junta-era officer Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, who was extradited from Mexico City to Madrid in 2003 and faces genocide, terrorism and other charges.

In 1990, a French court sentenced former Argentine naval Capt. Alfredo Astiz in absentia to life in prison for the abduction of two French nuns who were taken to a clandestine torture center in Buenos Aires and later disappeared. Sweden also sought Astiz's extradition in 2002 in the killing of a Swedish 17-year-old, but the Argentine government denied the request. He currently is under arrest on charges of human rights violations.