MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spanish court rejects extradition of former Argentine president

Isabel Martinez de Peron in Spain

However Spain's highest court has ruled that Peron, 77, was not implicated in the death squad's activities. The Anti-Communist Alliance or Triple A as it was known, murdered as many as 15-hundred people, according to human rights groups. The killings have been described as the start of Argentina's “dirty war” against leftist dissidents under subsequent military juntas.

Buenos Aires city Federal judge Norberto Oyarbide indicted her for her participation in the direction of the Triple A and Mendoza's Federal judge Rubén Acosta also indicted Martínez de Perón for the disappearance of Héctor Fagetti and for the illegal arrest of an underage boy, a month before she was overthrown in April 1976. Tucumán province judiciary also accused Martínez de Perón of the murder and disappearance of 600 terrorists and political opponents, and she also appears in the probe into the disappearance of former Salta Governor Miguel Ragone in March 1976. Isabelita's lawyer, Atilio Neira, praised the Spanish judiciary's decision and said "it is a very important step." The prosecutor's office, which represents the Argentine judges who are requesting the extradition, will probably appeal the ruling before the Spanish Supreme Tribunal. But, even if the tribunal decides to deny the extradition, the final decision will be taken by the Spanish Government's Ministers' Council. Meanwhile, Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who was visiting Argentina on Monday, avoided giving his opinion about the ongoing legal process. "It's an issue that concerns the judicial system, I respect the judiciary and there's nothing to comment on," said Moratinos when asked what he thought about the judiciary's decision during a press conference. Martínez de Perón, the former Argentine president Juan Domingo Perón's second wife, took office after her husband died in 1974 and presided over a period of increasing economic and political chaos. She was finally overthrown by a military coup in early 1976, which gave way to the military dictatorship that ended in 1983.