3 Sentenced in Pinochet-Era Killings

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Dec 19, 3:04 PM EST
3 Sentenced in Pinochet-Era Killings

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- A retired general and two former sergeants were fined and sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday for killing a leftist couple shortly after Chile's 1973 military coup.

The Santiago Court of Appeals said in a communique that Gen. Fernando Polanco and Sgts. Luis Fernandez and Hector Vallejos, all retired, were ordered to pay $600,000 to the son of the slain couple, Ernesto Lejderman.

Argentine primary school teacher Bernardo Lejderman and Maria Avalos, a Mexican citizen, came to Chile in 1971, attracted by their sympathy with Marxist President Salvador Allende.

When the military overthrew Allende in September 1973, the Lejderman family tried to flee to Argentina. An informer guided a unit led by Polanco to an abandoned mine where they were hiding and the soldiers shot the couple in front of the 2-year-old child in December 1973.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHILE_DIRTY_WAR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-12-19-15-04-43

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Bernardo Lejderman, María del Rosario, son Ernesto

[Hydra]

1. Damn, crimes take a long time to catch up to their perpetrators

I hope the 10 years stick.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Here's a photo of the son, Ernesto, who persisted in petitioning the country to revisit the case

against the men who killed his parents, after they had been exonerated originally by the government. He finally won!



Ernesto is the man wearing the white shirt.

[NI4NI]

3. I was hopng to see Kissinger's name n/t

[dipsydoodle]

4. Same here

.