Following a two year trial, Alfredo Ignacio Astiz, better known as the blond angel of death was sentenced to life in prison along with 11 other former officers for human rights violations committed at Naval Mechanics School (ESMA) during Argentina’s dirty war. The guilty charges included kidnapping and murdering of two French nuns (Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet), and the three founding members of Las Madres de la Plaza Mayo. The nuns accompanied the mothers to police stations and military barracks to search for information on their disappeared children as a form of security. It was believed that having church members with them provided a level of security. Astiz infiltrated Las Madres and later kidnapped the three founding members and the French nuns. On March 16, 1990 he was convicted and sentenced in absentia to life in prison by a French court. Argentina refused to extradite him so he has not served a single day of that sentence. Sweden also wanted to have him extradited on charges of murdering a Swedish citizen, Dagmar Ingris Hagelin who was only 17 when she was kidnapped and murdered. Astiz was protected by impunity under the “Transition to Democracy laws” (Ley de Obediencia Debida and Ley de Punto Final) until 2003 when the Argentine Supreme court declared the amnesty laws unconstitutional.
The Guardian claims that the outcome of the trial is seen as bittersweet by familiy members of Astiz’s victims. The quote Cecilia Devincenti, daughter Las Madres founding member Azucena Villaflor as saying "I don't believe in justice 34 years after the fact, now that the accused are too old and decrepit for it to matter."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/27/argentinas-angel-of-death-jailed
The Guardian claims that the outcome of the trial is seen as bittersweet by familiy members of Astiz’s victims. The quote Cecilia Devincenti, daughter Las Madres founding member Azucena Villaflor as saying "I don't believe in justice 34 years after the fact, now that the accused are too old and decrepit for it to matter."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/27/argentinas-angel-of-death-jailed