Argentina: Retired army officers found guilty of murdering bishop

Bishop Angelelli

Two retired army officers were sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday, for the murder of a Catholic bishop during Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

Ex-general Luciano Menendez, 87 and retired commodore Luis Estrella,82, were found guilty by La Rioja court, of ordering the murder of Enrique Angelelli, bishop of the northwestern province of La Rioja, on 4 August 1976.

Documents in the trial included two letters from the Vatican archives provided by Pope Francis. Bishop Angelelli had written to Rome just before his death denouncing the military regime's abuses. The bishop's aide, Father Esteban Pinto, who survived the accident, filed the lawsuit.

At the time of the killing, the military regime claimed that Bishop Angelelli, 53, had died in a car accident.

Menendez was already serving a life sentence after being found guilty in seven cases of human rights abuses.

This is the first time an official from the junta years has been found guilty of murdering a church leader. Scores of Catholic priests and nuns were "disappeared," tortured and killed during the dictatorship years. The victims include two French nuns and the bishop of San Carlos Ponce de Leon.

More than 30,000 people, mostly regime opponents, were killed or went missing during the dictatorship years, according to human rights groups. Among them were scores of Catholic priests and religious sisters "disappeared," tortured and killed.