Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter


3

Spain Nabs Alleged Pilot in 'Dirty War'

Charged in 'death flights' that dumped Argentines into sea

Share

(Newser) – Spanish police have arrested a commercial pilot they say flew "death flights" that dumped political malcontents into the sea for Argentina's junta during the Dirty War, the BBC reports. Julio Alberto Poch was nabbed in Valencia as he was preparing to fly a Transavia passenger plane to Amsterdam.

During the war, which lasted from 1976 to 1983, Poch is said to have been a military pilot at the Naval Mechanics School, one of the junta’s most notorious torture facilities. Prisoners there were taken on “death flights,” in which they were drugged, dragged aboard planes, then thrown from them over the water. Some 30,000 dissidents died or disappeared.

Former Argentine navy lieutenant Julio Alberto Poch is seen in an undated Argentine Navy identification photo, left, and a photo taken after his arrest in Valencia, Spain, on Tuesday.
Former Argentine navy lieutenant Julio Alberto Poch is seen in an undated Argentine Navy identification photo, left, and a photo taken after his arrest in Valencia, Spain, on Tuesday.   (AP Photo/Spanish Interior Ministry, HO)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
11.20.09
The Health-Care Wars Have Just Begun
11.19.09
Sarah Palin Deserves Some More Attention
3 comments
VIEWING:
 
EileenRocks
Sep 23, 09 3:28 PM CDT
Hey, leave the guy alone. Can't you see he was just trying to feed the fishes? =P Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
-1
schmidtkoff
Sep 24, 09 4:48 AM CDT
i'm glad argentina's supreme court struck down the amnesty laws in 2005. no he can be extradited to argentina and face human rights violations. hope he gets what he deserves. which will be far less than what he doled out to those poor victims. Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
WallyEFunk
Sep 24, 09 9:53 AM CDT
I always wondered what who happen to a guy like this (pilot) , who refused an order to fly the plane ?If they were so hard on dissodents, what whould happen to a guy in the military? Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

384 Stories

 Watchdog: 
 Raúl Just as Bad as Fidel 

He shares his brother's disregard for human rights

Nov 18, 09 2:45 PM CST
(Newser) - The perception that Cuba is less repressive under Raúl Castro than Fidel is false, Human Rights Watch says. Dissidents are still harassed by the state, subject to arbitrary detention—532 such cases in the first half of 2009 alone—fired. or denied work. The government also continues to pressure... More »

MORE ABOUT:
human rights • Fidel Castro • Cuba • economic sanctions • Raul Castro • human rights abuse

 Ex-Nazi, 90, Charged 
 With 58 Murders 

University student found him while researching paper

Nov 17, 09 12:40 PM CST
(Newser) - A 90-year-old former SS officer has been charged with 58 counts of murder for allegedly taking part in a massacre of Jewish forced laborers in Austria, German officials announced today. The man, identified in German media reports as Adolf Storms, had been living unnoticed in Duisburg until an Austrian university... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • Holocaust • war crimes • Nazi • Nazi Germany

Buenos Aires Grants First
Gay Marriage License 

Lawmakers consider officially legalizing it after court strikes down ban

Nov 17, 09 9:17 AM CST
(AP) - Two men were granted a marriage license in Argentina's capital yesterday, breaking ground in a country and region where laws ban gay marriage. Jose Maria Di Bello and partner Alex Freyre won the right to get married when a judge ruled last week that a ban on gay marriage violates... More »

MORE ABOUT:
gay marriage • marriage • Argentina • Buenos Aires

384 Stories


World  •  Crime & Courts 
TwitterFollow @NewserWorld on Twitter

 
human rights • Spain • war crimes • Argentina • Julio Poch

from our news partners