The family of Hernan Abriata has been waiting for this moment for almost eight years. She almost did not think she saw the alleged murderer of the young activist in prison. But the State Council validated on Wednesday, December 11, the extradition to Buenos Aires of the former Franco-Argentine police officer Mario Sandoval, accused of the disappearance of the young man during the last Argentine dictatorship, in 1976. After seven years and nine months of judicial proceedings and appeals, the decision is final, and extradition should take place within a maximum period of seven days.
Mario Sandoval, 66, alleged torturer of the dictatorship (1976-1983), installed since 1985 in Paris and naturalized French twenty years ago, was arrested a few hours after the decision of the State Council in Nogent-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne) by the gendarmes of the central office of fight against crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, supported by the GIGN, the elite unit of the gendarmerie.
Page Contents
Extradition decree signed in October 2018
The Argentinian justice, which has been seeking extradition to France since March 2012, suspects Mario Sandoval of being at the head of the police operation that snatched Hernan Abriata, a young Peronist movement activist, from his home on 20 October 1976. He was 25 years old and married for eight months at the time of his abduction. He was then detained at the Navy's School of Mechanics, the dictatorship's largest clandestine torture center, through which about 5,000 people have disappeared, often thrown from planes into the ocean.
On 24 October 2018, after a very long court battle, the French Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, and the Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, signed the decree authorizing the extradition of Mario Sandoval. But the 66-year-old former police officer, who denies the charges and considers the prescribed facts, immediately appealed to the Council of State. The highest French administrative court therefore estimated Wednesday that the extradition decree was legal.
"A special flavor"
In Buenos Aires, the Abriata family has let its joy explode. "Today, when I heard the news, I imagined him handcuffed and in a cell, he who always thought himself untouchable, out of reach of justice, exclaimed Laura Abriata, the missing student's sister, on the phone. It's comforting to know that this eight-year wait is over, especially for my mother, Beatriz, who turns 93 on December 25th. Christmas and my mother's birthday will have a special flavor this year. "
The lawyer of the Argentine State, Sophie Thonon-Wesfreid, said "Deeply rejoice to see the end of eight years of procedure". "I hope he will be sent to Buenos Aires as soon as possible so that he can finally explain his natural jurisdiction, which is Argentina," she added.
The ex-cop, who fears "To be deprived in Argentina of a fair trial", immediately appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for "Breach by France of its European commitments", announced his lawyer, Jerome Rousseau. Mario Sandoval asked the ECHR "To order the French Government not to implement the extradition decree before it has been able to rule on the appeal", said Me Rousseau in a statement.
The Code of Criminal Procedure prohibits extradition when the crime is prescribed under French law. But according to the constant jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation, validated on May 24 by the Constitutional Council, the prescription for a crime of sequestration, deemed "continuous", runs only from the moment the body of the victim is found or that the mis en cause confessed. Since the student who disappeared in 1976 had not reappeared since his abduction, the French authorities had considered that the offense of kidnapping had not ended on the date of the request for extradition.
"Common law prison"
In its decision on Wednesday, the Council of State noted that Argentine civil status acts presented by the defense of Mario Sandoval were limited "To presume the death of Mr. Abriata" or "To establish his absence for enforced disappearance. (…) Therefore, such acts do not allow to consider that the sequestration of Mr. Abriata would indeed have ended on October 31, 1976. "
An extradition will not deprive Mario Sandoval of his rights to a fair trial, respect for the presumption of innocence and legal certainty, has also found the Council of State, pointing out that the former police officer can "Submit to the Argentine criminal judge the elements that he considers useful" to prove his innocence.
"All our family has always wanted is that they go to a common law prison after a proper trial, with all the constitutional rights that correspond to it, which were not my brother Hernan nor the 30 000 disappeared from the dictatorship ", says Laura Abriata.
Although she has only asked for her extradition on the Abriata case, the Argentinean justice system has suspected Mr. Sandoval of having participated during the dictatorship in more than 500 acts of murder, torture and kidnapping. Arrived in France in 1985, reconverted since his arrival as an expert in economic intelligence and former teacher at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Latin America of the Sorbonne Nouvelle, the former police officer obtained the French nationality in 1997.
