'Dirty War' priest jailed for life

Former police chaplain Christian von Wernich was convicted on all counts after being accused of being a “co-participant” with police in seven murders, 31 torture cases and 42 kidnappings during the 1976-83 military rule that critics say the church did little to oppose.

Hundreds of people beat drums and set off fireworks outside the federal courthouse after the verdict was announced. Dozens of spectators cheered inside the packed courtroom including headscarved members of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who for the last 30 years have been seeking to learn the fate of sons and daughters who disappeared during a crackdown on dissent.

“At last, at last! My God, it’s a conviction!” said Tati Almeyda, of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. “We never thought we’d see this day. Justice has been served.”

Ripoll said the three-month trial called attention to the church’s failure to oppose human rights abuses more vigorously during the junta’s seven-year rule.

Some 13,000 people are officially listed as dead or missing from the dictatorship era, although human rights groups have put the toll at nearly 30,000.

During the trial judges toured former torture centres at police stations with survivors, and more than 70 witnesses testified that von Wernich conspired with police to help extract information from prisoners under the guise of giving them spiritual assistance.

On Monday a prosecutor recommended a life prison sentence for von Wernich, 69, saying the priest had been linked by survivors to at least five detention camps in Buenos Aires province.

“Do people really understand what a clandestine torture centre was? Do people know all the terror that went on in those places?” prosecutor Carlos Dulau said.

In his final testimony yesterday, Von Wernich – who wore a bulletproof vest over his clerical collar during the trial – professed innocence and urged the three-justice panel led by Judge Carlos Rozanski to absolve him.

“False testimony is of the devil because he is responsible for malice and is the father of evil and lies,” he said, prompting murmurs from the courtroom filled with torture survivors and human rights activists.

Von Wernich also denied ever violating the priestly prohibition against revealing information obtained in confession.

“No priest of the Catholic church ... has ever violated this sacrament,” he said.

Defence lawyer Juan Martin Cerolini said the priest was obliged to visit police detention centres as part of his duties, but did not play a role in the state crackdown.

“Von Wernich never kidnapped, tortured or killed anyone,” Cerolini said. He charged that the trial was unjust and that the government is failing to prosecute “terrorist acts” committed by former leftist rebels against state security forces.

Argentina’s Catholic Church withheld comment during the months of trial but its Episcopal Conference issued a statement after the verdict on its website declaring it was “moved by the pain” brought about by the priest’s conviction for what constituted “serious crimes.”

“We believe the steps taken by the justice system in clarifying events (of the past) should serve us to renew the forces of all citizens on the path to reconciliation,” said the statement, which urged Argentines to put away “hate and rancour”.

The statement did not address public criticism surrounding the trial that the church failed to vigorously defend human rights during the dictatorship.

Activists said they hoped von Wernich’s conviction would encourage other courts to move forward with pending cases against scores of other former security agents.

Critics say the disappearance of a key witness during last year’s trial of former police chief Miguel Etchecolatz has had a chilling effect on efforts to prosecute those cases. Etchecolatz was convicted in September 2006 in the same La Plata courthouse.

The trials came after the Supreme Court in 2005 annulled a pair of 1980s amnesty laws blocking prosecution of scores of former state security agents or their civilian allies.