Article originally published on the International Justice Tribune y reproducido en el portal IJ Central. By Salvador Herencia Carrasco and Mariana Rodriguez Pareja.

On 26 October 2011, a Federal Court in Buenos Aires gave a historic ruling convicting 16 people accused of crimes against humanity, on the counts of arbitrary detention, torture and unlawful killing, committed at the Naval Mechanical School (ESMA) during the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

The persons put to trial were former naval officers that used the ESMA as a clandestine detention and torture facility. In the ruling, 12 of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment; two to 25 years; one to 20 and the last one, to serve 18 years. Two of the accused were acquitted but will remain under arrest due to other pending cases. One of the persons convicted in this ruling is M. Astiz, also known as the Argentinean “Angel of Death”.

The trial lasted almost two years and covered 86 separate crimes. It also included testimony from more than 150 witnesses, including 80 survivors. Although the verdict was given in October, the entire ruling will only be published in December.

This is the first case that addresses the gross human right violations perpetrated in the ESMA center and it is expected that another trial will take place in 2012 to investigate other human right violations allegedly committed in this detention facility, including gender-based crimes.

ESMA, a Landmark case

The Escuela Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA) is a former navy school which became the biggest clandestine detention center during the military dictatorship. It is estimated that more than 5,000 people were arbitrarily detained, tortured and disappeared at this facility and less than 200 of the victims are believed to have survived.

According to testimonies, including from one of the accused, M. Pernías, many of the detained people at ESMA were thrown into the nearby Río de la Plata from airplanes, in the infamous Death Flights. Nowadays, the ESMA is open to the public and serves as a human rights memorial.

The conviction of the Angel of Death

One of the most symbolic representatives of this judicial proceeding, M. Alfredo Astiz, was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was known as the Angel of Death and was accused of torture, murder and other crimes. He managed to infiltrate the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, pretending to be searching for his missing brother. Among the victims of M. Astiz are the French nuns Alice Domon and Léonie Renée Duquet, journalist and writer Rodolfo Walsh, and the founders of the Mothers movement: Azucena Villaflor, Esther Careaga and María Bianco.

M. Astiz on numerous occasions challenged the authority of the Court to put him to trial claiming the political nature of the proceeding. During the closing remarks, he accused the Tribunal of being partial and handed a copy of the National Constitution to the Justice presiding the tribunal.

Junta Trial, Amnesties and Today

More than 600 cases have been brought to national courts since the Trial of the Juntas in 1985. However, in 1986 Congress approved the Full Stop Act and the Due Obedience Act, by which national courts were prohibited from dealing with cases involving lower-level military members accused of human rights violations committed during the Dirty War. Furthermore, perpetrators that were sentenced but could not benefit from those two laws received a pardon by then-President Menem in 1989 and 1990.

In 2003, Argentinean Parliament declared null and void the amnesty laws and granted Constitutional hierarchy to the Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.

In 2005, the Argentinean Supreme Court struck down the Full Stop and Due Obedience Acts, enabling the prosecution of international crimes perpetrated in the past. In this case, the interpretation and application of the American Convention of Human Rights and the rulings of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have enabled national authorities in Argentina and other Latin American countries to carry national proceedings, namely torture and enforced disappearances practices.

According to the Specialized Unit of the National Prosecutor’s Office in charge of human right proceedings, since 1983, approximately 262 people have been convicted and 802 have been charged for crimes committed during the military dictatorship. There are currently 14 more cases being tried, and 10 more are scheduled to begin trial.

Justice and the road ahead

The first ESMA verdict reflects one of the findings of the Nunca Más Report. Approximately 30,000 people were murdered or disappeared during the military regime and although this marks a significant effort by the judiciary, there are other trials pending, especially in the interior of the country.

As stated by M. Pablo Parenti, the Coordinator of the Prosecutor’s Office for these cases, the road ahead shows a need to accumulate as many cases as possible into one trial in order to have a swift justice and avoid unnecessary delays. However, as important as the first ESMA trial might have been, “the challenge is to fight the idea that the job has been done”. This statement is valid not only for Argentina but also for Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay...