Former Ford executives convicted for crimes against humanity
An Argentine court on Tuesday sentenced two former Ford Motor Co. executives to prison for helping agents of the country’s former dictatorship round up 24 Argentine union workers who were tortured and held in military jails.
The courtroom was crowded with some of the victims and family members, some of whom broke into tears and hugged after the sentencing for crimes against humanity was announced.
The court said that factory manufacturing director Pedro Muller and security manager Hector Francisco Sibilla targeted workers and gave information to security agents for their kidnapping and torture after the 1976 military coup.
Muller was sentenced to 10 years and Sibilla to 12 years. Santiago Omar Riveros, a former chief of the army’s fourth battallion, was sentenced to 15 years. He is already serving time in another case for human rights abuses. Sibilla and Riveros are Argentines and Muller was described in the initial indictment as a Czech national.
The men, all in their 80s or 90s, deny wrongdoing and can appeal. [Continue reading…]