Alfredo Astiz, a former naval captain who earned the nickname the Blond Angel of Death during Argentina's 1976-1983 military rule, was defiant in his first remarks in his trial Wednesday for crimes against humanity.

Astiz, 58, and 16 other naval staff are on trial for the killings of opponents of the government, real and perceived, at the Naval Mechanics School. About 5,000 regime opponents went through the school, essentially a killing field, and just about 100 are known to have survived.
 

Taking the stand for the first time at his trial which opened in December, Astiz went on for more than an hour, taking critical aim at former president Nestor Kirchner whom he accused of pressuring the high court to try military staff for rights abuses.
 

Astiz also denied the killings attributed to him including those of French nuns Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet as well as that of Azucena Villaflor, the founder of the rights group Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
 

"My conviction is already on paper in your offices," charged the defiant Astiz, who said everyone involved in "persecuting" him should pay for their crimes.

Political pronouncement
Prosecutor Pablo Oubina said Astiz had given not so much testimony as "a political pronouncement that at no time addressed the charges against him."
 

The trial resumes Thursday with testimony from Jorge 'el Tigre' Acosta, who worked as head of a Mechanics' School task force charged with kidnapping and torturing.
 

About 30,000 people went missing after being arrested during the right-wing military regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, according to human rights organizations.
 

Many of those abducted were accused of being leftist sympathizers or others deemed to be subversives by the regime. They were sent to torture centres and then murdered and their bodies disposed of in mass graves.
 

Source: AFP