Former Argentine dictators found guilty in baby-stealing trial

An Argentine court on Thursday found two former dictators, as well as others, guilty of kidnapping infants during the country’s dirty war. Jorge Rafael Videla, who ruled as a dictator between 1976 and 1981, was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He was also sentenced to life in prison in December for human rights abuses during his rule. Videla was among the coup leaders who overthrew then-President Isabel Martinez de Peron in March 1976. General Reynaldo Benito Bignone, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April of 2011 for kidnapping and torturing 56 people. He ruled the country from June 1982 until the nation’s return to democracy in December 1983.

Vielda and Bignone were both found guilty of systematically stealing babies from political prisoners and giving them new identities. The two men were the most high-profile defendants on trial for their roles as the “presumed authors of the crimes of theft, retention and hiding of minors, as well as replacing their identities,” according to a statement from the country’s judiciary. The former dictators were tried for stealing 34 babies from the parents, the court said. After the verdict, family members of the stolen children told CNN affiliate Canal 7 that they were pleased with the ruling. One father said, “It was was we were asking for. We never asked for revenge. We never hated. We never asked for anything more than justice, and we have been fighting for 36 years.”