MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Notorious death squad leader arrested in Argentina

The so-called “angel of death,” a notorious death squad leader who has become a sinister icon of Argentina's 1976-83 “dirty war” against leftists, was arrested here Friday pending possible extradition to Spain, official sources said.

Former naval Capt. Alfredo Astiz was one of 45 military officers ordered taken into custody in response to a request from a Spanish judge.

The arrest of the "angel of death" coincided with Friday's decision by President Nestor Kirchner to revoke a 2001 decree banning the extradition of Argentines wanted by courts abroad for crimes against humanity.

Justice Minister Gustavo Beliz announced Kirchner's decision at a press conference as the president was en route back to Buenos Aires from an official visit to the United States. The head of state later signed the document revoking the decree upon his return to the capital.

The abolition of the decree paves the way for the extradition of 45 military officers and one civilian indicted by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon on charges of mass murder, state terrorism and torture.

Kirchner decided to revoke the decree one day after Argentine Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral, acting on a request from Garzon, issued arrest warrants for those 46 individuals, all accused of taking part in bloody repression during the 1976-83 dictatorship.

International arrest warrants were issued by French, Spanish and Italian judges against Astiz, nicknamed the "angel of death" by dirty-war survivors for his fair-haired good looks.

The former navy officer is also wanted in Sweden for the kidnapping and disappearance of Swedish-born Dagmar Hagelin in January 1977.

Astiz was sentenced in absentia by a French court to life in prison for the kidnapping and disappearance of nuns Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet. In 2001, Italy requested his extradition in connection with the disappearance of three of its citizens, but was turned down.

The former death squad leader has always been defiantly unapologetic about the abuses committed by the military regime.

The defunct Argentine dictatorship is blamed for the abduction, torture and summary execution of between 15,000 and 30,000 people, real or imagined enemies of the regime. Some of the victims were either Spanish citizens or had a right, through a Spanish mother or father, to Spanish citizenship.

Garzon cites that as part of his reason for claiming jurisdiction in the cases. Kirchner also came out in favor of repealing two laws enacted in the 1980s that either granted amnesty or immunity from prosecution to military men accused of rights violations.

Justice Minister Beliz said Friday that the decree annulled by Kirchner, signed at the end of 2001 by then-President Fernando de la Rua, "was unsuitable because it violated both Argentine extradition laws and the bilateral treaty with Spain." The decree "created a special status that was unacceptable under the rule of law," the minister said, adding that the Argentine government wants "the judiciary to act with independence." In the words of Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa, a respected constitutional lawyer, Kirchner decided "to return to a system that does not make distinctions among types of crime, and to the principle of equality before the law."