MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine court orders release of jailed officers

Alfredo Astiz, the so-called Angel of Death

The order to release of 12 torture suspects from Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship unleashed a storm of condemnation from President Cristina Fernandez as well as human rights organizations in Argentina Thursday.

Justice officials said that 12 of the charged former military figures must be released from investigatory detention because a deadline had expired beyond which suspects could not be held without a legal judgement. The Attorney General said it would appeal the decision. The ex-officials include Alfredo Astiz, the so-called Angel of Death, and Jorge Acosta, alias "El Tigre." "Today is a day of shame for all Argentinians, for humanity and for our system of justice," Pte. Cristina Fernadez said. She was speaking at a ceremony to dedicate a memorial to the killed and disappeared at the site of the once feared Navy Mechanics School (ESMA), where the military carried out torture and murders. An estimated 30,000 people were killed during the dictatorship, human rights groups say. The best known Alfredo Astiz, a specialist in the infiltration of human rights NGOs, was charged in 1976 with the kidnapping of Azucena Villaflor, the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. He surrendered to British forces at the beginning of the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War, but was later repatriated to Argentina although wanted by Sweden and France for the forced disappearances in 1977 of Dagmar Ingrid Hagelin, a 17-yr old Argentine-born girl holding Swedish citizenship, and of two French nuns, Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet. A French court convicted him in absentia to a life sentence in 1990. The 12 officials at issue in the decision will not be released immediately, awaiting final decision by the judge