Spanish police arrest 'death squad' officer
A former police officer alleged to have been a member of a far-right death squad active in Argentina during the mid-1970s has been arrested in Spain on a warrant to face murder charges in his native country.
Argentine judicial authorities issued the international arrest warrant for Rodolfo Eduardo Almiron Sena on December 20 for his alleged role in two killings.
He is described as being a member of the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance, known as the Triple A, a far-right death squad that operated under the government of Gen. Juan Domingo Peron and then under that of his wife, Isabel Peron, who was toppled by Jorge Videla in a 1976 coup.
Almiron, 71, was arrested in the eastern city of Torrent near Valencia and will be transferred to Madrid’s National Court in the next few days to start extradition proceedings, police said.
In Argentina, he faces charges for illegal association and double murder, and in the arrest warrant his crimes were described as “crimes against humanity,” police said.
The Triple A group targeted more than 500 people during the 1970s in Argentina, including suspected members of the leftist Montoneros guerrillas and sympathisers.
