Argentina’s top court cuts sentence of human rights abuser
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s Supreme Court on Wednesday reduced the jail sentence of a man serving time for crimes against humanity committed during the country’s 1976-1983 dictatorship.
Luis Muina was sentenced in 2011 to 13 years in prison for the kidnapping and torture of five people during a military operation. Three of the top court’s five justices decided that his days spent in prison before a firm conviction should count double toward his sentence, meaning Muina could get out eight years earlier.
The court said the ruling was based on an interpretation of a repealed law that had not previously been applied to human rights convictions. The so-called 2×1 law was in effect in 1994-2001, when most dictatorship-era human rights criminals were still free.
“This ruling determined that common crimes are the same as crimes against humanity,” said Andres Gil Dominguez, a lawyer who specializes in constitutional law. “It’s a new judicial and ideological way of looking at human rights crimes by the Supreme Court.”
