Page last updated at 16:34 GMT, Tuesday, 27 May 2008 17:34 UK
Argentine ex-army chief on trial
An ex-army officer viewed by Argentine human rights activists as a prime example of the military's cruel rule in the 1970s and 1980s has gone on trial.
Luciano Benjamin Menendez, 80, and seven other former army officers, are accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing four left-wing activists.
Prosecutors say the victims were dumped in the street to make it look like they died in a shootout with officials.
It is the first big human rights trial to be held in the city of Cordoba.
Most human rights cases to date have been tried in Buenos Aires and the surrounding area. Luciano Benjamin Menendez, who reached the rank of general, was one of Argentina's most feared army officers during military rule between 1976 and 1983.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7422284.stm~~~~~~~~~~Argentine dictatorship-era general on trial
Updated at: 0415 PST, Wednesday, May 28, 2008
BUENOS AIRES: An Argentine former army general from the country's 1976-1983 dictatorship has been on trial on charges of kidnapping, torturing and murdering leftist opponents of the regime.
Luciano Benjamin Menendez, 80, and seven other military officers are being prosecuted for the killing of four members of the leftist Revolutionary Worker's Party (PRT) in 1977.
"Now it's your turn!" cried one of the relatives of the victims, pointing at Menendez and the alleged co-conspirators.
Menendez, nicknamed "Cub" or "The Hyena of La Perla," commanded the Third Army Corps between 1975 and 1979, with authority over much of central and northeastern Argentina.
The four leftist activists were allegedly tortured at La Perla, the largest government-run torture center in the central province of Cordoba. Some 2,500 junta opponents went through La Perla between 1976 and 1979, and today the site is a museum dedicated to the victims.
Scores of police officers protected the court house in the city of Cordoba, located 700 kilometers (435 miles) north of Buenos Aires, as the trial began.
Witnesses testified that Menendez personally supervised the torture and execution of political prisoners.
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