The ruling came after 77 hearings, two years and two months of debate. | Photo: Twitter @abuelasdifusion

Buenos Aires, June 13 (RHC)-- After dismissing the defense's motions for annulment, the Court, composed of judges Esteban Rodríguez Eggers, Matías Mancini and María Morgese, determined that the crimes analyzed were crimes against humanity and proceeded to the reading of the verdict through electronic devices.

The case refers to the military who participated in the Montonera Counter-Offensive, an operation aimed at the resistance against the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, and which through a systematic extermination plan, in an act of State terrorism, left some 30,000 people disappeared, thousands murdered and exiled.

Judge Rodriguez Eggers, president of TOF 4, was in charge of reading the sentences for Roberto Dambrosi, former chief of the Psychological Activities Company of Intelligence Battalion 601 and Juan Firpo, former chief of the Counterintelligence Central and chief of the Security Division of Intelligence Battalion 601.

In addition; Jorge Bano, who was a member of the Special Operations Section (SOE) of the Campo de Mayo garrison; Eduardo Ascheri, also a member of the SOE of Campo de Mayo; Marcelo Sixto Courtaux, head of Special Intelligence and Counterintelligence Activities of Intelligence Detachment 201.

All of them were members of the military with high command in the Army Intelligence areas, Battalion 601, 201 and G2 of the Military Institute Command.

The co-defendants held high positions in the structures of Battalion 601, fundamental in the most bloody operations of the dictatorship, since they were chiefs of different divisions that acted within the Intelligence Department Plans (G2) of the Military Institute Command. 

The sentence of Jorge Norberto Apa, key man of the Subversive Terrorist Division, was suspended due to his lawyer's request to be excluded from the trial, arguing that "he does not understand the facts in the middle of an insane process," which will have to be certified by forensic experts.

In the trial, which began in person in 2019 and now continues virtually, 200 witnesses testified about the Army Intelligence structure that acted against the Montonero militants.  The defendants were tried for their role in the clandestine centers or in the operations, as well as for being part of an apparatus that planned and ordered the crimes against humanity. 

In December, the Prosecutor's Office requested that they be sentenced to life imprisonment for illegal deprivation of liberty, torture and homicide committed against 94 victims.