Truth Vibrations
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Jorge Rafael Videla on trial in Cordoba, Argentina, on July 22, 2010.
An Argentinian court is expected to render its verdict Wednesday in the trial of a former dictator on charges of human rights abuses during the nation's right-wing rule from 1976-83, the government's Judicial Information Center said.
Jorge Rafael Videla was among the coup leaders who overthrew then-President Isabela Martinez de Peron in March 1976. He ruled as dictator until 1981.
Also on trial in a separate proceeding is Luciano Benjamin Menendez, former head of the Third Army Corps. He is accused of violating the human rights of four people.
Another former dictator, Gen. Reynaldo Benito Bignone, was sentenced in April to 25 years in prison for kidnapping and torturing 56 people. He ruled Argentina from June 1982 until the nation's return to democracy in December 1983.
Up to 30,000 students, labor leaders, intellectuals and leftists who ran afoul of the dictatorship because of their political views disappeared or were held in secret jails and torture centers during the nation's eight-year "Dirty War."
Videla and the others face charges related to abuses committed at a penitentiary in Cordoba and in the kidnapping and torture of six people, the information service said.
Videla, 84, has previously been found guilty of other human rights abuses, including kidnapping, torture and homicide. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1985 but released in 1990 under a pardon issued by then-President Carlos Menem to many former members of the military dictatorship.
Argentina's congress and courts have struck down the pardons and amnesty laws of the 1980s, clearing the way for rights trials to be held again.