Supreme Court declares amnesty laws unconstitutional

For victims, the ruling revived the possibility of justice.

For military officers, policemen and doctors with ties to the dictatorship, it stoked fears that they would be brought back to court.

Officially, 13,000 people are listed as dead or missing from the 1976-83 dictatorship’s crackdown on dissent, although human rights groups say the toll is closer to 30,000.

Some 3,000 officers, about 300 of whom are still serving in the armed forces, could be called for questioning, according to human rights groups, which estimated that up to 400 of them could face new charges.

The Supreme Court, by a 7-1 vote with one abstention, struck down laws passed in 1986 and 1987 forbidding charges involved in disappearances, torture and other crimes during the dictatorship, a court spokesman told The Associated Press.

The ruling came in the case of Julio Simon, a former police officer accused in the disappearance of Jose Poblete and Gertrudis Hlaczik and of taking their daughter, Claudia Poblete, as his own. Under Argentine law, the decision can be taken as precedent in other cases.

President Nestor Kirchner called it a major step toward healing the wounds of one of Argentina’s most turbulent chapters.

"The court’s decisions have restored our faith in justice," Kirchner said jubilantly. "This is a blast of fresh air that signifies the end of impunity."

In August 2003, the House and Senate voted to repeal the 1986 and 1987 laws.

But activists had waited for the Supreme Court to make a final decision on the constitutionality of the laws, which effectively ended trials for officers accused of human rights abuses.

After the dictatorship, many ranking military officers were tried on charges of abducting, torturing and executing suspected opponents of the regime.

They were imprisoned in 1985 — before the amnesty laws went into effect — but were pardoned by then-President Carlos Menem in 1990.

Those officers were accused of waging a systematic crackdown on leftist and other political opponents who were kidnapped off the streets, tortured in clandestine centres and "disappeared."

Many were detained naked and blindfolded in chains while they were tortured with electric prods and drugged before being tossed into the South Atlantic on so-called "death flights."

The Dirty War inspired Luis Puenzos’ 1985 drama The Official Story, about a couple’s adoption of a baby they later learn was taken from one of the disappeared. The movie captured for worldwide audiences the horrors of the dictatorship.

Many of the junta’s top leaders and other officers are now under house arrest on charges of kidnapping children belonging to mothers who "disappeared" during the military’s rule — facing prosecution under a loophole in the amnesty laws that allowed for prosecution in ongoing crimes.

Legal experts said they expected the ruling would now open the floodgates to more prosecutions beyond the baby-kidnapping charges.

"This is a historic decision that the Argentine court has taken today," constitutional law expert Ricardo Gil Lavedra said. "This is going to reopen investigations, with all the difficulties that that entails after having the cases closed all these years."

Gen Roberto Bendini, Argentina’s top military commander, called the ruling a step toward "national reconciliation that all Argentines desire."

But there was unease in the military ranks. Hours before the verdict was delivered, defence minister Jose Pampuro said there was apprehension in the armed forces about the possibility of reopening trials. Human rights groups rejoiced.

The Centre for Legal and Social Studies said in a statement that the ruling would clear the way for "punishing those responsible for state terrorism."

Tears flowed among the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who have been marching for more than a quarter-century with white handkerchiefs on their now-graying heads. Every week, they circle outside the pink Government House to demand an accounting for sons and daughters who went missing.

"One cannot explain the emotion we are feeling.

It’s just so overwhelming after so many years of pushing for this," said Tati Almeida, one of the mothers.

"There were so many cases and so much evidence presented ... now those cases are going to have to be reopened."