| Posadas Hospital Trial | |
| Court: | Federal Criminal Oral Court No. 2 of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires |
| Full Name: | BIGNONE, Reynaldo Benito Antonio and others s/ inf. art. 144 bis paragraph 1 and last paragraph –law 14.616–, 142 paragraph 1 and 5 –law 20.642 and 144 ter first paragraph –law 14.616–, 142 paragraph 1 and 5 –law 20.642 and 144 ter first paragraph –law 14.616–. |
| Keywords: | Crimes against humanity |
| Decidedate: | February 3, 2012 |
The Posadas Hospital Trial (Spanish: Juicio Hospital Posadas) is the name given to the court case for crimes against humanity committed in the clandestine detention center (Argentina) called "El Chalet", located inside the Posadas Hospital, during the military dictatorship called the National Reorganization Process.
The first trial took place between August and November 2011. In this period, the only defendants who reached the sentence, Hipólito Mariani, Luis Muiña and Reynaldo Bignone, were convicted and finally sentenced for the kidnapping, torture and disappearance of hospital workers. Others who were denounced for the act were found incompetent or died before the sentence was passed.
The second trial for crimes against humanity committed there began on April 18, 2018, with two defendants: Luis Muiña (convicted for the events listed in Section I) and Argentino Ríos (tried for the events listed in Section I and II).
The case was brought to trial in 2008 by federal judge Daniel Rafecas, who was in charge of the large case of the First Army Corps (among which were the Atlético, Banco y Olimpo (ABO) case, the ABO bis case and the Automotores Orletti case).[1]
The trial hearings were scheduled to begin on August 10, 2011, before the Federal Oral Court No. 2 of the Federal Capital, composed of Judges Pablo Daniel Bertuzzi, Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu and Jorge Luciano Gorini, but the date was postponed "due to issues inherent to the court."[2] A month later, the start was rescheduled again, and the hearings finally began on October 20, 2011.[3] [4]
On March 28, 1976, four days after the coup d'état, the "Hospital Posadas" was occupied by Army forces under General Reynaldo Benito Antonio Bignone.[5] As part of this occupation, several members of the hospital were illegally detained and subsequently dismissed for being "linked to subversive or dissociative activities", no further proof than this statement was needed, due to a decree law (Expendability Law 21,260) issued on the same day of the military coup.[6]
On April 13, 1976, Colonel Julio Ricardo Esteves was appointed as interventor of the hospital and remained in office until March 8, 1977. Esteves, during 1976, encouraged the arrival of a group of men to whom he assigned the functions of "security guards". They formed a group they called "Swat", formally appointed to guard the hospital and ensure the integrity and property of its employees and the professionals who worked there, but which in reality was dedicated to other functions related to the alleged "anti-subversive struggle". In fact, a report made by the Batallón de Inteligencia 601 of the Argentine Army assumed "that there was a health post at the hospital dedicated to the care of subversive elements".
One of the two chalets on the hospital grounds was converted into a clandestine detention center after the hospital's director until 1976, Julio C. Rodríguez Otero, was illegally detained and tortured and his family forced to leave the hospital.[7] Beginning in November 1976, the "Swat Group" used this chalet to kidnap and torture at least seven cases, which was proven during the course of the trial.[8]
On January 11, 1977, Air Force personnel carried out an operation to disband the Swat group, which culminated in the arrest of its members.
Similarly, Argentino Ríos, a civilian belonging to the so-called "Swat Group", was charged and the debate in the case began with him as the accused. However, during the hearings he had a cardiac decompensation and was later removed from the trial when he underwent surgery at the Durand hospital, due to the conclusions of the Forensic Medical Corps of the National Justice.[12] Similarly, Colonel Agatino di Benedetto, the first controller of the hospital, was exonerated for insanity. Other defendants died before the trial began, such as medical colonel Julio Esteves, the controller who created the "Swat Group" and Juan Máximo Copteleza, head of the group.[13]
| Lidia Cristina Albano | Pediatric Resident | March 28, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 28, 1976 | ||
| Carlos Juan Apezteguía | Intensive Care Doctor | March 28, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 28, 1976 | ||
| Camilo Francisco Campos | Nephrologist Doctor of Medical Clinic and Intensive Care | March 28, 1976 | At their home | March 28, 1976 | ||
| Enrique Malamud | Assistant Hospital Director | March 28, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 28, 1976 | ||
| Ana María Mühlmann | Gynecologist Doctor | March 28, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 30, 1976 | ||
| Marta Muñóz | Pediatric Resident | March 28, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 28, 1976 | ||
| Juan Manuel Nava | Doctor of Medical Clinic and Intensive Care | March 28, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 28, 1976 | ||
| Julio Rodríguez Otero | Assistant Hospital Director | March 28, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 28, 1976 | ||
| Dora Agustín | Chief of Staff | March 29, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 29, 1976 | ||
| Carlos Heraldo Bevilacqua | Intensive care doctor | March 29, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 29, 1976 | ||
| Rubén Ernesto Drago | Employee | March 29, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 29, 1976 | ||
| Davor Kvaternik | Doctor of Medical Clinic and Intensive Care | March 29, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 29, 1976 | ||
| Daniel Manigot | Doctor of Medical Clinic | March 29, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 29, 1976 | ||
| Hugo Nin | Head of Anesthesiology | March 29, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 29, 1976 | ||
| Hernando Luis Sala | Doctor of Medical Clinic and Intensive Care | March 29, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 29, 1976 | ||
| Susana Sztabzyb | Doctor of Medical Clinic and Intensive Care | March 30, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | March 30, 1976 | ||
| Gladys Evarista Cuervo | Nurse | November 25, 1976 | Posadas Hospital | January 22, 1977 | She was detained in the clandestine detention center "El Chalet" and at the Palomar Air Base, where she was tortured. | |
| Jacobo Chester | Doctor | November 26, 1976 | At their home | He was taken to "El Chalet", where he was tortured and murdered. His body was found in La Plata River | ||
| Jorge Mario Roitman | Doctor | December 2, 1976 | At their home | He was transferred to "El Chalet", tortured and disappeared | ||
| Jacqueline Romano | Doctor | December 1, 1976 | Ezeiza Polyclinic | December 12, 1976 | She was transferred to "El Chalet" and tortured. | |
| Marta Elena Graiff | Sterilization area employee | January 11, 1977 | At their home | December 11, 1976 | She was transferred to "El Chalet" and tortured. | |
| Julio César Quiroga | Employee | January 5, 1977 | At their home | He was transferred to "El Chalet", tortured and disappeared |
At the trial, the following persons appeared as witnesses to what happened:
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In the final arguments, the complaint requested 25 years in prison for the three charged,[15] while the prosecution requested the same amount for Bignone, 20 years for Muiña and 12 years for Mariani.[16] [17]
The sentence ordered a parallel investigation into Carlos Andrés Paradela, a dentist who ended up as head of the security service. He testified as a witness on October 28, 2011, during the trial, but that day one of the survivors, Hugo Nin, recognized him as one of the hospital's collaborators.
The convictions became final on August 21, 2013, when the Supreme Court rejected the defense's last remaining appeal.[20]
In 2014, the National Chamber of Criminal Cassation rejected the application of the repealed "two-for-one" benefit, which provides for double counting the number of days in pretrial detention after the accused has served two years in that situation, which had been used by the court to calculate the sentence handed down in 2011 to Bignone and Muiña.
The trial was not without its critics. Before it began, the time that passed between the elevation to trial and the beginning of the trial was questioned, so much so that the Chamber of Criminal Cassation reassigned the trial to Federal Oral Court 3.[21] This tribunal did not carry out the trial either because of its three members, one excused himself and was recused by Bignone's defense and two others were recused by the complaint for "not guaranteeing impartiality".[22] For all this, it was finally reassigned to Federal Oral Court 2.
At the same time, the trial was criticized by human rights organizations and the prosecution itself for not having accepted the charge of homicide against the charged –despite the fact that in the Trial of the Juntas the murders had already been proven–, and for the sentences being lower than the required amounts.[23]