A former police officer from Argentina who has lived for more than 30 years as a university lecturer and security expert in France was extradited and arrived on Monday in his native country, where he is wanted for crimes against humanity, including torture, committed during the country’s dictatorship, said a French lawyer representing Argentina, reports The New York Times.
The news of the extradition of the former police officer, Mario Sandoval, was welcomed in Argentina by human rights activists and relatives of victims of the military regime, which killed up to 30,000 people, according to estimates, between 1976 and 1983.
But even as Mr. Sandoval was arrested at his home in a Paris suburb on Wednesday, many in France tried to fathom how a suspected torturer was able to live there for decades, teaching international affairs, participating in security conferences on Latin America and working with French security officials.
Prosecutors in Argentina have accused Mr. Sandoval, 66, of having participated in the death of an architecture student, Hernán Abriata, who disappeared in 1976 at a notorious secret detention center in Buenos Aires.
Argentine prosecutors believe he may also have been connected to the disappearance of many other civilians while he was a police officer in his 20s.
Argentina requested his extradition in 2012, but Mr. Sandoval denied the accusations and appealed every decision until he ran out of legal options. Last week, France’s top administrative court approved his extradition.
Mr. Sandoval appealed the decision to the European Court of Human Rights; his appeal was rejected.
“It’s a relief and a delight to see Mr. Sandoval finally extradited,” said Sophie Thonon-Wesfreid, a French lawyer who has represented Argentina in the proceedings. “Hernán Abriata’s mother is 92, she’s been waiting for 43 years.”
Mr. Sandoval’s lawyer, Jérôme Rousseau, said the trial his client would face in Argentina would be “political,” in a country that he said was undergoing a “purge.”
Since 2006, Argentina has undergone an enormous effort to punish former military officers and their accomplices. Courts have convicted 962 of the almost 3,300 people who have been accused of crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, and stealing babies from pregnant detainees and giving them up for adoption.