Italy approves extradition of priest charged with murder and torture during Argentina dictatorship

[Judi Lynn]

Italy’s justice minister has approved extraditing an Italian priest sought by Argentina on charges of murder and torture during that country’s last military dictatorship

By FRANCES D'EMILIO Associated Press
August 3, 2023, 2:37 PM




ROME -- Italy’s justice minister has approved extraditing an Italian priest sought by Argentina on charges of murder and torture during that country’s last military dictatorship, but the priest has an appeal in Italian courts seeking to block extradition, a lawyer and rights groups said Thursday.

Attorney Arturo Salerni, who represents Argentina, told The Associated Press that Justice Minister Carlo Nordio on Wednesday signed off on the request to extradite the Rev. Franco Reverberi, an 85-year-old priest who served as military chaplain during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

. . .

The Catholic church's hierarchy in Argentina has been widely criticized for being allied with Argentina's military regime that ran a campaign to illegally detain and kill people it deemed “subversive.” When Pope St. John Paul II visited the country in 1987, critics lamented his failure to decry church support for military rulers, especially since the pontiff had just arrived from Chile, where he had denounced the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

. . .

Reverberi emigrated from Italy to Argentina when he was about seven years old, said Ithurburu. The rights group he heads takes its name from the date March 24 in 1976, when a U.S.-backed coup in Argentina installed a military government.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/italy-approves-extradition-priest-wanted-murder-torture-argentina-101996732

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Franco Reverberi

Google translation:

The Cassation cancels the stop on the extradition of the former military chaplain Franco Reverberi

04 JULY 2022
UPDATED 07 JULY 2022 AT 18:25
2 MINUTE READ

The Italian Supreme Court of Cassation on June 30 made a decision that opens up the possibility of a trial for the former military chaplain Franco Reverberi, accused of having committed crimes against humanity during the years of General Videla's dictatorship.

The Cassation in fact annulled the sentence with which the Court of Appeal of Bologna on 17 March had refused the extradition of Reverberi.

The priest, who in 2011, shortly after the first trial against the crimes committed during the dictatorship had opened in Mendoza, was able to leave Argentina to settle in Sorbolo, his country of origin, will therefore have to answer in a trial accusations against him.

In addition to the accusation of having been part of the clandestine repressive apparatus found guilty of the kidnapping of dozens of people and of having witnessed the torture sessions of four surviving prisoners, it was added, following new acquisitions, that of being implicated in the disappearance of José Guillermo Berón, a 20-year-old boy kidnapped and then disappeared in 1976.

"Today Reverberi's impunity is over and now he will have to deal with justice. The decision of the Court of Appeal was inadmissible, deeply offensive towards the victims and towards history: from the reasons it seemed that Reverberi carried out activities in a prison with detained but he operated in a clandestine facility where prisoners were tortured and made to disappear.The Casa Departimental of San Rafael was an illegal facility set up in the dungeons of a courthouse where elite groups of the army tortured dissidents, some of whom were killed " commented Jorge Ithurburu, president of 24 Marzo Onlus, an association that assists the families of the victims.

Sorbolo, the Don Reverberi case: "The community is tired. Let's not judge facts we don't know"
January 20, 2021

The lawyer Arturo Salerni, who defends the Argentine Republic, had appealed against the sentence that denied extradition: "The judicial proceedings that took place in Mendoza revealed, among other crimes, the disappearance and killing of a boy held prisoner in San Rafael. For this murder, which is not time-barred, the Argentine judicial authority has therefore advanced a new accusation against Reverberi and a new request for extradition", Salerni points out.

"In the event that an extradition is not reached for health reasons, all of which are still to be examined, the trial could be moved to Italy. Just as we now have the proceedings against the Argentine colonel Malatto in Italy. Now we wait to read the reasons with which the Cassation fully accepted our appeal, opening up the possibility of a trial and the writing of a page of truth and justice2.

With respect to the judicial turning point, the public prosecutor of Mendoza, Dante Vega observes that "the Court of Cassation of Rome, by revoking the sentence of the Court of Appeal, gives the victims hope that justice will be done for the serious crimes committed in the lowest period of the Argentine history The Cassation has also demonstrated that Italy today is not a refuge for mass criminals like Jorge Troccoli and Carlos Malatto, people who managed to flee to Italy and then used their citizenship to escape the punishment they deserve. cannot be tolerated by the international community".

https://tinyurl.com/3pd6byhz