Former Argentine Cop Extradited From France

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues Dec. 18, 2019: Argentine former police officer, Mario ‘The Butcher’ Sandoval, was extradited from France to Buenos Aires, Argentina on Monday, December 16, 2019 to face trial over the disappearance of a student.

Argentina suspects that Sandoval took part in more than 500 cases of kidnappings, torture and murder at a time when some 30,000 were “disappeared” during the 1976-83 military dictatorship.

French police arrested the 66-year-old former police officer last Wednesday at his home near Paris, after French authorities gave the final go-ahead for his extradition, ending an eight-year legal battle, AFP reported.

Sandoval had been living in France since 1985 and obtained French citizenship.

He is wanted over the alleged kidnapping in October 1976 of Hernan Abriata, an architecture student whose body has never been found, as well as a slew of other disappearances.

Sandoval’s lawyers had argued that he would not be able to get a fair trial in Argentina and faced torture or poor detention conditions there.

But their appeals to the European Court of Human Rights to take up his case failed.