Posted on 12/29/2001 12:13:22 AM PST by rwb
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) - Argentina has arrested an infamous navy officer from the 1976-83 military dictatorship, dubbed the "Blond Angel," at the request of Sweden, which wants to extradite and try him for the death of a young Swedish girl in 1977, a court said on Friday.
Alfredo Astiz was a member of a death squad operating out of the Navy School for Mechanics, a clandestine camp in Buenos Aires where many of the 30,000 people who died or disappeared in the "Dirty War" against leftists met their grisly end.
He is also wanted by Italy and Spain and has been condemned to life in jail by France, in absentia, for killing two nuns.
As a young man with cherubic looks he infiltrated the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo human rights group and is suspected of killing 15-year-old Swedish student Dagmar Hagelin, who was living in Argentina and was mistaken for a suspected leftist.
"Yesterday his arrest was ordered and carried out after a request from Swedish courts via Interpol," a court official who asked not to be identified told Reuters. Astiz was due to appear in court on Friday, after which Sweden would be formally notified of his arrest.
Argentina has proved reluctant in the past to extradite Dirty War criminals, arguing that its own courts tried and sentenced the men who organized the repression in 1985. But the top brass and subordinates like Astiz were freed or pardoned by a series of amnesty laws by elected presidents from 1986-90.
France criticized Argentina in August for refusing to hand over Astiz, although he was held for a month while extradition hearings took place. Italy wants him for the murder of three Argentines of Italian origin, one of whom was pregnant.
The Dirty War pardons do not cover crimes against children and Argentine and foreign courts alike have been prosecuting former officers involved in the thefts of babies from women held in torture camps who were killed after giving birth.
Sweden will have 40 days to formalize its extradition request. Argentina agreed last year to compensate Hagelin's father for the "emotional damage" of his daughter's death.
Well there's the answer to your demand (from the S.Korean missiles post) for an incident where an innocent person was killed.
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