Trial in Argentina for D2 Case Against 28 Former Police Officers

The Argentine Justice has started this Friday the trial against 28 former members of the Police of the Mendoza province for crimes against humanity committed between 1974 and 1981 during the last civil-military dictatorship.

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The debate takes place in the federal courts of the city of Mendoza, where the role played by the Department of Information "D2" in the repressive plan deployed in the Argentine province will be judged.

The defendants in the mega-case known as "D2" are 28 former members of the Information Department of the Mendoza Police. They are charged with the crimes of abusive deprivation of liberty aggravated by violence and threats, aggravated torment aggravated by the victim's status as a politically persecuted person, and homicide aggravated by premeditation and by the premeditated concurrence of two or more persons.

They also face charges of aggravated serious injury, robbery aggravated by the use of a firearm and rape perpetrated with the use of force or intimidation, committed before and during the last civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983) against more than 300 victims. Among them, 71 were murdered or disappeared, while more than a dozen were minors at the time of the events.

The tweet reads, "Crimes against humanity: today begins the trial against 28 former members of the Mendoza Police (D2) for crimes against humanity committed between 1974 and 1981 against more than 300 people. They are accused of committing kidnappings, torture, homicides, robberies, injuries, abuses and rapes."

According to the Human Rights Secretariat, plaintiff in the case, the D2 "specialized in intelligence tasks against militants and political organizations since before the civil-military dictatorship and was one of the main executing arms of State terrorism in Mendoza." The agency pointed out that D2 facilities were the largest clandestine detention center in the province.

As for the 28 defendants, 15 were never tried for crimes against humanity, while 13 already have previous convictions in one of the 12 trials held in the province since 2010.

The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights informed in a statement that 15 oral trials are currently taking place in Argentina in different provinces and that the Secretariat of Human Rights is a plaintiff in two out of three of these cases. 

According to the statement, "since the return of democracy (1983), more than 1100 genocides have already been sentenced by the justice system." In this effort, Argentine human rights organizations have made possible a greater understanding of the human rights violations perpetrated by the last civil-military dictatorship.