Italy Concludes Investigation Against Argentine Torturer

The Roman Prosecutor Gianfederica Dito has formalized the closure of the homicide investigations opened against the former Argentine military man Carlos Luis Malatto who managed to escape from Argentine justice in 2011 and take refuge on the island of Sicily.

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The conclusion of the investigation normally precedes the formal request to open a trial, which is expected in October.

Malatto, 74, is accused of murdering at least four people in the province of San Juan during the implementation of Operacion Condor, a U.S.-backed repression plan against social activists and left-wing militants, which was implemented by South American dictatorships between the 1970s and 1980s.

He is not, however, the only repressor who has ended up in Italy. Uruguayan Jorge Nestor Troccoli is serving a life sentence in the Italian Carinola prison for murdering 26 Italian-Latin Americans while working as a torturer for the Naval Rifle Corps (FUSNA).

He is also being tried for the murder of the Argentine Peronist militant Jose Potenza, his Italian partner Affaella Filipazzi, and Elena Quinteros, a member of the Uruguayan People's Victory Party.

Currently, Argentina is also trying to achieve the extradition of Daniel Oscar Cherutti, a torturer who operated in clandestine detention centers such as Automotores Orletti.

Previously, on August 1, Italy gave the green light to the extradition of priest Franco Reverberi, who will be tried in Argentina for crimes against humanity. He was a military chaplain in the clandestine detention center known as San Rafael House.

On Sept. 21, the Argentine Human Rights Secretary Horacio Pietragalla is expected to arrive in Rome. He will hold meetings to expedite extraditions and learn first-hand about the progress of the trials against the repressors.

Italy tried dozens of soldiers from countries such as Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Chile for the death or disappearance of citizens with Italian nationality during the time of Operation Condor.