Santiago de Chile, December 5 (teleSUR-RHC)-- The Chilean Supreme Court sentenced Friday three former secret agents who worked for the former dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) for the murder of a theology student and activist in 1978.        

The victim, German Rodriguez Cortes, was killed at the age of 29. He was a former seminarian of the Fathers of the Holy Family and a member of the Political Committee of the Revolutionary Left Movement during the dictatorship.
   
Miguel Krassnoff Marchenko, Basclay Sandoval Zapata Reyes and Enrique Arancibia – three former officials with the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) – were sentenced by the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision to 10 years and a day in prison. 

The Supreme Court also rejected the defendants appeal of a previous ruling made by a lower court, by Judge Jorge Zepeda, and increased the sentence by six years. 

The top court also upheld another aspect of the previous ruling for the accused to pay compensation of some US$143,000.00 (one hundred million pesos) to the victim's daughter. 

The Pinochet regime was one of Chile's most violent. According to official data, 903 people were reported as disappeared and 1,759 were executed during his 17 year rule, that followed the overthrow and murder of President Salvador Allende.