A Judge in Chile has sentenced 106 intelligence officers for the kidnapping and murder of 16 leftist activists in 1974 and 1975.
Judge Hernan Cristoso sentenced the former intelligence officers to between 541 days and 20 years in jail. He also ordered the state to pay 7.5 million US dollars in compensation to the victims families.
Among the sentenced are two former generals, and several senior officers at the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA). Judge Cristoso said the Pinochet government had tried to cover up the disappearances, saying either that the victims had fled abroad or that they had been killed in fighting between rival leftist groups.
During General Pinochet’s rule from 1973 to 1990 some 3,000 people died or disappeared in Chile. Thousands of people were also tortured or had to go into exile.