Victory 38 years on for Grandmother leader
An Argentine mother who first sued military officers nearly 38 years ago for the disappearance of her pregnant daughter under the former dictatorship finally saw them convicted yesterday.
“I see that justice comes late, but it comes,” said Rosa Roisinblit, 97, a prominent campaigner for victims of the 1976- 1983 dictatorship.
The court handed 25- year jail sentences to former air force comman- ders Omar Graffigna, 90, and Luis Trillo, 75, and a 12- year term to exintelligence officer Francisco Gomez, 70.
Roisinblit’s grandchildren Mariana and Guillermo embraced her in the courtroom after the ruling was announced.
“I am happy to have lived to witness what I have just seen and heard,” Roisinblit said.
The former officers were con- victed of “illegal privation of liberty and aggravated torture”.
Patricia Roisinblit and her husband Jose Manuel Perez Rojo were kidnapped by air force personnel in 1978 and have never been found.
Rosa Roisinblit i s one of the leaders of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a prominent campaign group.
Campaigners say 30,000 people were victims of forced “disappear- ances”. The former dictator Jorge Videla and other top members of the regime were sentenced to life in prison in 1985.
Mariana Roisinblit was looked after by her paternal grandparents after her mother and father were seized when she was 15 months old.
Guillermo was born while his mother was in custody and later identified with the help of the Grandmothers group. A passenger train derailed yesterday in Spain’s northwestern Galicia region, killing at least two people and injuring several others. The Galician regional government said the accident happened in Porrino, about 450km northwest of Madrid. It said emergency services dispatched doctors on helicopters to the scene. The train was travelling from Vigo to Porto, in neighbouring Portugal. Adif railway infrastructure company said it has openened an investigation into the cause. Spanish media said the train was carrying around 60 passengers. The front car of three came completely off the track and hit a post next to the line. The back two cars were partly off the tracks. The train belonged to Portuguese rail company Comboios de Portugal. Dozens of tourists were rescued yesterday after spending the night trapped in cable cars high above the Mont Blanc glaciers in France when high winds caused the cables to get tangled. A helicopter rescue operation was suspended on Thursday as night fell, leaving about 45 people suspended at an altitude of 3800m. Emergency workers scrambled at first light on Friday to rescue the stranded, including a 10- year- old child. The 5km ride between the Aiguille du Midi and Helbronner peaks usually takes 35 minutes, but stopped at 5.30pm local time after the cables became tangled. In total 110 people were trapped initially, but a helicopter rescue operation was able to airlift 65 people, including French, Italian and American tourists, out of the cable cars and off the mountain. Two men have been arrested on suspicion of plotting a Paris- style marauding terror attack on the streets of Britain. The pair, who are understood to be brothers, were arrested in a dawn raid at a property in west London. Security sources said the raid had interrupted a “significant” terrorist plot aimed at bringing death and mayhem to Britain. The plot was said to have been inspired by Isis ( Islamic State) and was believed to involve guns and possibly bombs. Security sources suggested that rather than a “lone wolf ” style attack, the plot was more widespread and serious in nature.