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| |  | | Juan Manuel Guillermo Contreras Sepulveda | | | context : | Chile  | | judgement place : | Chili | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | Final conviction handed down in several cases in Chile, last conviction on 30 June 2008 to two consecutive life sentences; trial in absentia in France set to begin in May 2008 | | position : | General, chief of the secret police under the Pinochet Regime |
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| | | | Case 1 : The Orlando Letelier Affair
In this case, Manuel Contreras was accused of having arranged the murder of Orlando Letelier, the former Foreign Affairs Minister in the Allende government who was assassinated in Washington on 26 September 1976.
Contreras was arrested on 22 September 1991. His trial opened on 18 February 1993 before the Santiago Appals Court. On 13 November 1993, he was sentenced by this court to 7 years in prison. Following an appeal, he was freed on bail. By decision of the Supreme Court , however, on 30 March 1995, the sentence handed down by the Court of Appeal was confirmed. Contreras rejected the trial proceedings which he qualified as politically motivated and irregular. Tension rose between the military and various institutions of state. Pinochet, at the time was still General in Chief of the Army, but since he, himself, had excluded the Letelier assassination from the scope of application of the Amnesty Law of 18 April 1978, could do nothing but conform to the verdict of the Court
In March 1999, a request for release was lodged and considered to be admissible. Contreras was subsequently freed on 24 January 2001.
As a result of his former position as head of DINA during the worst years of the military dictatorship of Pinochet, Contreras was implicated in several cases of human rights violations. He was put under house arrest in January 2002 to await the result of four decisions certain of which were related to his participation in the Condor plan. He was notably charged with complicity in the murder of Carlos Prats who had preceded Pinochet in his post as General in Chief, but who had gone into exile in Argentina where he was assassinated on 30 September 1974.
Case 2. : The Miguel Angel Sandoval Affair
In this affair, Contreras was held to be responsible for the disappearance of Miguel Angel Sandoval the young militant of the MIR (a left wing movement) arrested on 7 January 1975 by agents of DINA and who, after being tortured, disappeared.
On 16 April 2003, Contreras was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment by judge Alejandro Solis. On 5 January 2004, the Appeals Court upheld the guilty verdict but reduced the sentence to 12 years in prison. This was the first conviction in Chile related to the forced disappearance crimes committed under the dictatorship. On 17 November 2004, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the Appeals Court. On 28 January 2005, Contreras was put in prison, not without having put up strong resistance.
Case 3: Diana Frida Aron
An investigation of the disappearance in 1974 of journalist Diana Frida Aron led to the conviction of Contreras in 2003. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for having ordered this act. His appeal was dismissed and his sentence confirmed on 18 May 2004. However, on 1 June 2005, the Appeal Court in Santiago decided the Statute of Amnesty was applicable to Contreras and his four co-defendants. Diana Aron's family appealed against this decision.
On 30 May 2006, the Supreme Court anulled the Appeal Court's decision and confirmed the judgement of the first instance which had sentenced Contreras to 15 years in prison.
Proceedings instituted abroad:
Manuel Contreras was the subject of several requests for extradition-all of which came to nothing-for crimes committed within the scope of Operation Condor:
- from the United States for the murder of Orlando Letelier and his secretary, a citizen of the USA;
- from Argentina for the murder of Carlos Prats and his wife;
- from Italy for the murder of Bernardo Leighton, Vice-President in the Allende government, in Rome on 6 October 1975.He was sentenced in absence in Italy to 18 years imprisonment.
Contreras was also the subject of an arrest warrant issued by a French judge concerning his responsibility in the Alphonse Chanfreau and Jean-Yves Claudet-Fernandez affairs, where these two members of the MIR after being tortured, went missing. With no response from the Chilean authorities to the requests of the French Magistrate , French authorities announced in February 2008 that a trial in absentia will be held in May 2008 against Contreras and 16 other persons, most of whom were military officers. They will go on trial on charges of "arbitrary detention accompanied, or followed, by torture and barbarous acts" in a period between 1973 and 1975.
Contreras has been detained since January 2005 when he was first sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. This first sentence was followed by several others. Another sentence was issued by the Chilean Appeals court on 11 January 2008, (10 years for war crimes).
On 17 April 2008 he was sentenced to 15 years for the disappearance of a political opponent. This brings his cumulative sentence to more than 57 years imprisonment.
On 30 June 2008 he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for a 1974 car bombing that killed another general and his wife. | |     click for more... | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Chile | | | date of birth : | | | 04.05.1929 | | | last time seen : | | | Santiago (Chili) | | | period of charges : | | | 11.09.1973 | | | charges : | | | Forced disappearances
Other
Torture
War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 03.07.2008 |
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