Victims testify against accused torturer

MADRID, Spain -- A Spanish judge seeking to put a former Argentine military officer on trial for rights abuses wrapped up his investigation Wednesday after hearing from seven alleged torture victims -- including one who said he was subjected to electric shocks with his newborn son lying on his chest.

Carlos Lordkipanidse, 51, told The Associated Press he met the suspect, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, the first night he was tortured in Buenos Aires in 1978 and saw and heard how Cavallo took part in many torture sessions.

Lordkipanidse was one of four witnesses to testify Tuesday before Judge Baltasar Garzon, and three others did so Wednesday. Garzon has been gathering testimony into possible abuses by the Argentinian officers since the mid 1990s in preparation for possible trial.

He is acting under a Spanish law that says crimes against humanity can be tried in Spain even if they did not occur here.

Still, Cavallo may be sent home now that Argentina's Congress has repealed laws that halted trials of people accused of abuses during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

Argentina's Supreme Court must now rule on the repeal, and if it is upheld, it seems likely that Cavallo would be returned to Argentina for trial.

Lordkipanidse said several nights later his 20-day-old son Rodolfo was placed on his chest as an electric current was applied and that the baby felt it, too, but survived. His son now lives in Sweden and is in good health, he said.

Five of the seven witnesses to go before Garzon this week were held at Argentina's Navy Mechanical School, or ESMA, the most feared torture center run by the dictatorship.

An estimated 5,000 people are believed to have died there, and Cavallo is alleged to have been a key figure at the center.

Cavallo was extradited in June to Spain from Mexico, where he was living under another name, after torture victims living in Mexico saw him on television and reported him to the police.

Lordkipanidse said many of his friends, who also were kept at the navy school with hoods over their heads night and day, vanished never to be heard from again.

"They (military officers) have tried to cover the affair up, but they forgot how committed we are. It's a commitment to our companions in the struggle, who were hooded and later disappeared," Lordkipanidse told reporters.

An official Argentine report concluded that at least 9,000 people were killed by the military junta as it sought to snuff out dissent, both real and perceived. Human rights group put the figure at 30,000.

Garzon has charged Cavallo with genocide and terrorism. Victims also accuse Cavallo of stealing money from them and using it to set up a network of businesses across Latin America.