BUENOS AIRES — A pair of octogenarian ex-generals who served during Argentina's "dirty war" against internal dissent were sentenced to life in prison Thursday after defiantly declaring they were innocent of the murder charges on which they were convicted.
"I am being pursued politically by those defeated in yesterday's war," white-haired ex-Gen. Antonio Domingo Bussi, 82, testified before being sentenced in the northern province of Tucuman.
Also sentenced by the same three-judge panel was Bussi's former boss, former Gen. Luciano Benjamin Menendez, 81, who testified that he had done what was necessary to confront "international communism."
Human rights advocates called for the pair to be sent to prison, but Bussi was immediately returned to house arrest at his residence in an exclusive gated community. Menendez was dispatched to military custody.
The pair were convicted of murder and related charges in connection with the disappearance of provincial Sen. Guillermo Vargas Aignasse. He vanished after being arrested March 24, 1976, the day of Argentina's last military coup.
The military takeover kicked off Argentina's 1976-83 dirty war against suspected leftists, which resulted in as many as 30,000 killings, according to human rights activists. Many bodies have never been found.
Bussi, who served as both a general and military governor in Tucuman, acquired a reputation for being especially brutal, in a regime notorious for its cruelty. He allegedly oversaw executions at a clandestine detention facility. In one case, Bussi is reputed to have personally executed a young female suspect with a shot to the head.
Like other former military leaders, Bussi and his boss evaded prosecution for years because of amnesties and pardons that shielded alleged rights abusers. But Argentina has since revoked those legal protections, leading to the trials of hundreds of dirty war-era security officials.
The case of Bussi has been among the most closely watched, both because of his notoriety and his combative proclamations. Thursday's court session was nationally televised.
"I have a right to think that this trial is about vengeance," Bussi declared in his hoarse, feeble voice, reading from a statement through black-rimmed spectacles with thick lenses. "My physical disabilities do not allow me to confront this last combat."
