MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

French Request for Argentine Rejected.

A federal judge today Saturday rejected a French request to extradite a former Argentine naval captain wanted in the deaths of two French nuns killed during Argentina's Dirty War.

Federal Judge Alcindo Alvarez Canale said Alfredo Astiz must remain in the country while Argentine officials finish their own investigation, according to details of the ruling obtained by the independent news agency DyN.

Astiz is being investigated along with several other former officers as part of an Argentine probe into accusations of torture and other abuses committed during the 1976-83 military dictatorship.

Astiz was picked up last Tuesday and confined to a naval base in Buenos Aires before being flown to Bahia Blanca, some 390 miles south of Buenos Aires, for the federal court proceedings, which ended Saturday.

In 1990, a French court tried Astiz in absentia and sentenced him to life in prison in the abduction of two French nuns, Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet. Their bodies were found on a beach near Buenos Aires two months after they were abducted in December 1977.

According to papers filed in the French court, Astiz allegedly ordered the abduction of the nuns, who had befriended anti-government activists. Astiz has denied the French accusations and professed his innocence.

In the past, Argentina has repeatedly turned down extradition requests for Astiz and other military officials.

Legal troubles, however, are also mounting at home for Astiz.

Last August, the Argentine legislature repealed two major amnesty laws that had long blocked any prosecution of dictatorship-era human rights abuses.

Federal Court Judge Sergio Torres in Buenos Aires now is conducting an investigation into accusations surrounding the Navy Mechanical School, where prosecutors say a notorious torture center was run during the dictatorship.

Torres ordered Astiz and eight other former officers detained last week.

It was the second time in recent months Astiz has been taken into custody. In July, he was arrested and later released in a separate investigation into Dirty War abuses.

Rights groups have accused Astiz of heading one of several navy teams charged with kidnapping leftists and other dissidents, who were often tortured and later executed.

Some 9,000 people were reported dead or missing during the seven-year dictatorship. But human rights groups insist as many as 30,000 people perished.