On Tuesday an Argentine court sentenced the last military president in Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship, often known as the “Dirty War”. Reynaldo Bignone was charged with the kidnapping, torture and murder of 56 people in a concentration camp, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

A government report states that more than 11,000 people died or disappeared during Argentina's crackdown on leftists and other opponents of the military regime. Human rights groups say the number is closer to 30,000.

Aging military officials are often held under house arrest for human rights abuses, but activists and relatives of victims celebrated that courts ordered Bignone to go to prison.

Bignone attempted to justify his actions.

[Reynaldo Bignone, Former Argentine Military Ruler]: (Spanish, male)
"I don't deny that the disappearance of a person, even if it's one person, is a crime during times of peace. In times of war, particularly during an irregular war, it has a different meaning."

Estela de Carloto is the president of the human rights organization “Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo” founded in 1977. Their aim is to find the babies stolen during the Argentine dictatorship. She is satisfied with the sentence and prison term.

[Estela de Carloto, Argentine Human Rights Organization President]: (Spanish, female)
"We were right to trust justice despite the outcome of several other cases and this strong sentence has been adjusted to fit the committed crimes. These were crimes against humanity but we are very satisfied with the prison sentence because those privileges of house arrest are aberrant because we know they live as if nothing ever happened."

In 2005, Argentina's Supreme Court struck down two amnesty laws that shielded hundreds of former officers from charges of human rights abuses during the dictatorship. Since then, several people have been convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison.