Outspoken national deputy Elisa 'Lilita' Carrió has called for elderly former military officers convicted of crimes against humanity committed during the 1976-1983 dictatorship to be released from prison.
Speaking during a visit to Posadas, Missiones Province, where she was promoting her new book Vida ("Life"), Carrió lashed out at human rights organisations and said elderly military officers should be freed from sentences for crimes against humanity, given their age.
"They fight for rights but human rights are so that old people do not die in prisons. Human rights must be for the 80-year-old military [officers] who are dying in prisons," Carrió said.
It's not the first time Carrió has expressed such views. In 2017, she was recorded at a talk in Belgrano telling locals that "there are many soldiers who were convicted in trials without evidence." She also expressed support for the Supreme Court's controversial '2x1' ruling in 2017, which sparked uproar among human rights advocates.
Human rights organisations estimate that as many as 30,000 people were killed during the dictatorship. Many of the victims were abducted, tortured and even thrown from helicopters while still alive into the sea.
No stranger to controversy, the Civic Coalition-ARI lawmaker then seemed to equate convictions for corruption with crimes against humanity, citing the example of former planning minister Julio de Vido, who is currently behind bars.
"I also want freedom for [Julio] De Vido. If he is sick, and because he is 70 years old, and even though he is the greatest thief in Argentina and despite the fact that I have persecuted him ," the national deputy, who forms part of Mauricio Macri's Juntos por el Cambio coalition, added.
"I have a persecution of more than 20 years with De Vido," the Civic Coalition-ARI leader said, describing his crimes and "stealing" and "treason to the homeland."
Less than two weeks ago, De Vido, 70, filed a request with the courts to serve out the rest of his sentence under house arrest, given his age and health problems. The courts rejected his request.
– TIMES/NA
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