Retired pilot Julio Poch will be extradited to Argentina to face charges of running ‘death flights’ under the country’s former military dictatorship. Spain’s National Court ruled last week that there are sufficient guarantees to ensure that Poch would receive a fair trial in Argentina.

Julio Alberto Poch, a former pilot with the Dutch Transavia Airlines, is wanted in Argentina for allegedly flying planes used to dump opponents of the military regime into the sea - known as ‘death flights’.

The 57-year-old, who has dual Dutch and Argentine nationality, is said to have been a military pilot at Argentina’s notorious Naval Mechanics School, ESMA - one of the biggest torture and detention centres of the Argentine military regime, which ruled the country from 1976 to 1983.

Between 13,000 and 30,000 people died or disappeared during that time.

Poch, who has been in custody in Madrid since his arrest in September last year, denies all the allegations.

He had accepted his extradition to Argentina saying that he hopes for a “fair trial” in Argentina as there is “no evidence” against him. Poch considers himself a political prisoner, a term generally used in Argentina for victims of the former military regime.

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