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Jailed for rights abuses

BUENOS AIRES: A former police officer has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for human rights abuses in the first conviction handed down since Argentina's Supreme Court overturned amnesty laws protecting former officials from dictatorship-era hostilities. Julio Simon was sentenced on Friday by a federal tribunal in Buenos Aires in connection with the 1978 disappearance of a Chilean man and his Argentine wife during the military dictatorship. Defence lawyers, however, argued there was insufficient evidence to convict him, and vowed to appeal. Human rights groups hailed the ruling as a victory, saying it marked a step toward obtaining justice after the 1976-83 dictatorship. The court, set to release its full ruling Aug. 11, said in a statement that it had convicted Simon of the torture and ``illegal privation'' of liberty of Jose Poblete and his wife, Gertrudis Hlaczik, as well having taken away their daughter, who at the time was 8 months old. — AP

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