ITALY/ARGENTINA: FORMER ARGENTINE MILITARY OFFICER JORGE OLIVERA APPEARS IN A ROME COURT FOLLOWING A EXTRADITION REQUEST BY FRANCE
Record ID:
230471
ITALY/ARGENTINA: FORMER ARGENTINE MILITARY OFFICER JORGE OLIVERA APPEARS IN A ROME COURT FOLLOWING A EXTRADITION REQUEST BY FRANCE
- Title: ITALY/ARGENTINA: FORMER ARGENTINE MILITARY OFFICER JORGE OLIVERA APPEARS IN A ROME COURT FOLLOWING A EXTRADITION REQUEST BY FRANCE
- Date: 10th August 2000
- Summary: ROME, ITALY (AUGUST 10, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF ROME'S APPEAL COURT (2 SHOTS) 0.09 2. SV/CU: PRESS AROUND CARLO LONGARI, LAWYER OF JORGE OLIVERA (2 SHOTS) 0.16 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) CARLO LONGARI SAYING: "He said no to extradition. He gave out his personal details. He told the judge what he does, that he is a lawyer, that he had been in Europe for twenty days, he had been in Strasbourg because of some judiciary proceedings that he is following there, that they arrested him at Fiumicino (Rome's) airport on August 6 while he was about to go back to Argentina with his wife...Now the proceedings for extradition will begin, papers from Paris should arrive and when they are here we'll try to understand the content of the accusations which to date are not known to us". 1.00 4. CU CAMERA/ SV: LONGARI GETTING IN THE LIFT (2 SHOTS) 1.08 BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (FILE, 1983) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 5. VARIOUS OF RAUL ALFONSIN HOLDING SPEECH AFTER DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN ARGENTINA (4 SHOTS) 1.31 ROME, ITALY (MARCH 10, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 6. VARIOUS OF TRIAL IN ABSENTIA AGAINST GENERAL GUILLERMO SUAREZ MASON AND OTHER ARGENTINE HIGH OFFICERS FOR THE MURDER AND KIDNAPPING OF ITALIAN CITIZENS DURING SO-CALLED "DIRTY WAR" IN ARGENTINA / TWO FEMALE RELATIVES AT TRIAL (9 SHOTS) 2.30 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 25th August 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROME, ITALY; BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
- City:
- Country: Argentina Italy
- Reuters ID: LVA542WAZRWFZPVAIQ7DFO90EUV1
- Story Text: A former Argentine military officer appeared in court
on Thursday (Aug. 10) following a request by France for his
extradition. Jorge Olivera, who was arrested in Italy on
Sunday, is suspected of involvement in the 1976 disappearance
of Marie Anne Erize in San Juan, one of 15 French nationals
who disappeared in Argentina during the military dictatorship.
Jorge Olivera, a retired army major, was arrested in
Italy last Sunday on an international warrant issued by French
authorities seeking his extradition. It is the first time a
former military officer has been arrested abroad and faces a
possible trial.
His lawyer, Carlo Longari, said his client had told the
court that he had refused to be extradited.
"He said no to extradition. He gave out his personal
details. He told the judge what he does, that he is a lawyer,
that he had been in Europe for twenty days, he had been in
Strasbourg because of some judiciary proceedings that he is
following there, that they arrested him at Fiumicino (Romes)
airport on August 6 while he was about to go back to Argentina
with his wife...Now the proceedings for extradition will
begin, papers from Paris should arrive and when they'll be
here well try to understand the content of the accusations
which to date are not known to us," Longari said.
The case is unlikely to trigger a stand-off between
Argentina on the one hand and France or Italy. While the
Argentine government refuses to extradite former Argentine
officers to be judged abroad, it has indicated it would not
intervene on behalf Mr Olivera, other than extending usual
consular services to him.
In addition to further French arrest warrants, Baltasar
Garzon, Spain's judge in the famed Pinochet extradition case,
has reportedly been seeking the detainment and extradition of
as many as 98 Argentines.
Mr Olivera was tried by a federal court in 1986 for
alleged torture and murder of political prisoners. The trial
was suspended under a law that essentially pardoned all but a
few top-ranking officers.
The Olivera case could increase pressure for Argentine
courts to renew their investigations. The case unfolds only
days after former Chilean dictator General Pinochet was
stripped of senatorial immunity.
Just as his arrest and the lengthy attempt to extradite
him from the UK gave way to preparations for a possible trial
in Chile, analysts say, the same thing could now happen in
Argentina.
Olivera, himself a lawyer, represented Guillermo Suarez
Mason, one of Argentina's most notorious generals during the
1976-83 military dictatorship.
Suarez Mason is currently under house arrest in Argentina
on charges of kidnapping or concealing the identities of
kidnapped children during the so-called Dirty War.
An estimated 15,000 to 30,000 leftists or suspected
sympathisers died or disappeared during the military
dictatorship.
Hundreds of babies and small children belonging to women
held in Dirty War torture centres were alleged to have been
stolen from their parents and often illegally adopted by
military couples.
Suarez Mason is being tried in absentia in Italy with six
other Argentine military officers for the alleged murder or
disappearance of eight Italians during the Dirty War.
The general is accused of being involved in the deaths or
disappearances of six of the eight Italians.
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