MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

France asks Argentina to hand over the “Angel of Death”

France has formally requested the extradition of Alfredo Astiz, a former Argentinean Navy captain and notorious death squad leader who has become a sinister icon of Argentina's 1976-83 “dirty war”, a Justice Ministry official said Saturday

Nicknamed the "Angel of Death" by survivors on account of his fair-haired good looks, Astiz was tried in absentia in France in 1990 where he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two French nuns, Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet. They were among the up to 30,000 alleged "subversives" or leftist sympathizers who were detained without charges, tortured and surreptitiously killed by order of the military juntas that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983 Astiz is also wanted in Sweden for the 1977 abduction and disappearance of Swedish-born teenager Dagmar Hagelin. In 2001, Italy requested his extradition in connection with the disappearance of three of its citizens, but was turned down.

Crusading Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon also has Astiz down on his list of 46 people he wants to prosecute under Spanish laws claiming universal jurisdiction over crimes of state terrorism and lesé humanity. The "angel of death" was one of the former military officers who were taken into custody in Argentina last month after President Nestor Kirchner revoked a two-year-old law banning the extradition of Argentineans wanted by courts abroad for crimes against humanity.

The French victims' families were elated by the move and said France should have priority over Spain, Sweden and Italy because Astiz, who has always been defiantly unapologetic about his role, has already been tried and convicted in that country But diplomats said it was impossible to say which country Astiz is most likely to be handed over to first, insofar as "complicated jurisdictional issues" were involved.