Alfredo Astiz, Argentinian captain
Alfredo Ignacio Astiz (born 8 November 1951) is a former commander, intelligence officer, and naval commando who served in the Argentine Navy during the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla during the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (1976–1983). He was known as El Ángel Rubio de la Muerte (the "Blond Angel of Death"), and had a reputation as a notorious torturer. He was discharged from the military in 1998 after defending his actions in a press interview.
He was a member of GT 3.3.2 (Task Group 3.3.2) based in the Naval Mechanics School (ESMA) in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War of 1976–1983. The school was adapted as a secret detention and torture center for political prisoners. As many as 5,000 political prisoners were interrogated, tortured and murdered in the ESMA during those years. GT3.3.2 was involved in some of the 8,961 deaths and other crimes documented by a national commission after the restoration of democratic government in Argentina in 1983.
Astiz, a specialist in the infiltration of human rights organizations, was implicated in the December 1977 kidnapping of twelve human rights activists, including Azucena Villaflor and two other founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and two French nationals, Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon, who were Catholic nuns. None of the twelve was seen alive again outside detention and all were believed killed, rumored to be among the bodies washed up on beaches south of Buenos Aires in late 1977.At the beginning of the 1982 Falklands War, Astiz surrendered with his team to British forces. Sweden and France wanted to question him about "disappearances" of their nationals at his hands but, considering issues of the Geneva Conventions, the United Kingdom had him questioned by a British policeman. Astiz refused to answer any questions. The UK did not think it had grounds to hold or prosecute him, as he was suspected for crimes committed in Argentina that were not then defined as against international law, and repatriated him. In 1986 and 1987, Argentina passed the Pardon Laws, providing a kind of amnesty to military and security officers for crimes committed during the Dirty War. In 1990, a French court convicted Astiz in absentia for the kidnapping of Duquet and Domon, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
After the Argentine Supreme Court's 2005 ruling that the Pardon Laws (Ley de Obediencia Debida and Ley de Punto Final) were unconstitutional, the government re-opened prosecution of war crimes cases. That year Astiz was detained on charges of kidnapping and torture. A mass grave with several unidentified bodies was found in July 2005 in a cemetery about 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires; forensic DNA testing identified Duquet, Villaflor, and two other founding Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. The prosecution of charges against Astiz included murder. Together with numerous other defendants associated with ESMA, Astiz was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Argentina for crimes against humanity on 26 October 2011.