Convictions of 5 Ex-Argentine Leaders Upheld

The Argentine Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the convictions of five former military leaders, including former Presidents Jorge R. Videla and Roberto E. Viola, for atrocities committed during rightist rule when thousands of people disappeared.

The high court affirmed the life sentences ordered one year ago for Gen. Videla and a former top navy commander, Adm. Emilio E. Massera, and the eight-year sentence for another former naval leader leader, Adm. Armando Lambruschini.

But the court made two minor reduction of sentences. It cut Gen. Viola’s 17-year sentence by six months, throwing out two of the many counts on which he was convicted because they were left off the prosecutors’ charge.

The 4 1/2-year sentence of a former air force commander, Gen. Orlando R. Agosti, was reduced by nine months. The court said the statute of limitations had expired on three of the robbery counts on which he was convicted.

Convicted by Appeals Court

The five were convicted by a federal appeals court on Dec. 9, 1985, on multiple counts including kidnaping, torture, murder and robbery in connection with human rights abuse by the military regime.

At least 9,000 people disappeared during a campaign to exterminate leftist subversion in the late 1970s, according to a government investigatory commission. Some human rights groups put the total as high as 30,000.

President Raul Alfonsin ordered the former military leaders’ trials, unprecedented in Latin American history, upon taking office in December, 1983, and ending nearly eight years of rightist armed forces dictatorship.

In their appeals, the former leaders argued that the trials were politically motivated and that they could only be fairly judged by their military peers. They also said that harsh tactics were needed to win the battle with subversion, dubbed the “dirty war” by the military.

Prosecutors also appealed, calling the sentences for Viola, Lambruschini and Agosti too light. They asked for life sentences for all five.