MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Clarin newspaper owner placed under house arrest

The owner of Argentina's largest newspaper was placed under house arrest Friday while investigators look into whether she adopted children taken from prisoners of the 1976-1983 military regime.

Ernestina Herrera de Noble, the 77-year-old owner of Clarin newspaper and the president of the country's biggest media conglomerate, spent the last three days in a Buenos Aires police station jail.

During a court appearance on Thursday, Herrera de Noble entered a plea on not gilty to the judge investigating the accusations against her.

The charges were levelled against the businesswoman by the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo group, which has sought to determine the fate of the thousands of disappeared opponents of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

Illegal adoptions of children of the disappeared have been confirmed. The Argentine government's official report on the "dirty war" acknowledges that some 9,000 people disappeared at the hands of security agents, while human rights groups contend the actual number of victims totals 30,000.

Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde on Friday raised doubts about the arrest procedure in the case, which he labelled an "excess."