A federal court has sentenced former military dictator Reyanaldo Bignone to 25 years in prison for torture, murder and kidnappings during Argentina's "dirty war" in the 1970s, dpa reported.
The court on Tuesday found Bignone, 82, guilty in 56 cases of victims who were detained, tortured and killed in the Campo de Mayo military base in 1978-79, where he was second in command.
Bignone later became the last of the dictators during the military regime that ruled from 1976 to 1983.
The Federal Tribunal of San Martin on Tuesday also sentenced former generals Santiago Omar Riveros, 83, and Fernando Verplaetsen, 84, to 25-year prison terms as co-defendants in the same cases.
Relatives of the victims and other human rights groups hailed the verdicts, which also revoked an earlier house arrest sentence for Bignone and ordered him to serve time in a common prison.
"Justice is sometimes late in coming, but it has arrived and that's the important thing," said Estela de Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo advocacy group.
Investigators estimate about 30,000 people were "disappeared" and presumed murdered during the military repression.
Justice Minister Julio Alak called the ruling "an exemplary act of justice, because it deals with one of the bloodiest representatives of the genocide in the country between 1976 and 1983."
Former Argentine dictator sentenced to 25 years in prison
A federal court has sentenced former military dictator Reyanaldo Bignone to 25 years in prison for torture, murder and kidnappings during Argentina's "dirty war" in the 1970s
