This is then followed by a few paragraphs that I have already cited in the main text of Operation Massacre. Dr. Schaposnik then continues:
I have encountered numerous torture cases in the criminal courts that leave no shred of doubt: in one of them, the perpetrators were sentenced in the first hearing to four years in prison by Judge Viglione, and the case is currently on appeal in the appropriate chamber. Another case, which is still in its first hearing in the same court, is worth highlighting to see whether the charges—overwhelming and painful for any man with two cents’ worth of sensitivity to bear—are not damaging to the reputation of the institution.
I will now summarize some of the proceedings of the criminal case based on torture claims that is currently being tried in Judge Viglione’s court.
Court minutes, page one: dated April 9, 1956, Judge Viglione, having been informed that illegal punishment has been carried out against the prisoners repeatedly, in the Lanús Bureau of Investigation, resolves to establish the Court in that police division.
Back of page one: Having established the court in the aforementioned police station, Judge Viglione examines the cells together with the Court clerks and is informed by prisoners Héctor Silva, Agustín Daniel Silva and Julio Jorge Silva, Agapito Rearte, Rómulo Fernández, Héctor A. Milito, Mariano Enrique Gareca, Carlos Neme, Miguel Artemio Longhi, Alfredo Richler, Alfonso Dande, Ernesto Arturo Suárez, Domingo Cuervo and Domingo Prieto, that they had injuries from torture inflicted upon them in that same police station, and which call for the attendance of the police medic, Dr. Ricardo Alberto Díaz, who is offering his report separately. The prisoners then identify their torturers: Rearte gives the name of Officer Farina; Milito was given the picana by Officers Zapiola and Fernández; Cuervo reports that he was beaten by Officer Gatti and others whom he would recognize; Prieto says that Officer Fumagalli and others beat him and gave him the picana; Richler saw his fellow prisoners being taken to the cell completely naked and in poor condition due to the torture they had endured. The minutes are signed by all of the aforementioned prisoners, the judge, and the clerks.
The police medic’s report reads:
That prisoners Héctor, Agustín Daniel, and Julio Jorge Silva have the following injuries: linear abrasions on the lateral right and left side walls of the upper abdomen. Multiple punctated ecchymoses in most of the abdomen, seven days old, produced by a hard instrument; the rest produced from mild pressure throughout the area by a small instrument with a small blunt surface, which has been applied violently enough to produce these small superficial hemorrhages.
Agapito Néstor Rearte: two scars approximately half a centimeter in diameter in the dorsal region of the penis; given their size, they look like burns and are not less than seven days nor more than fifteen days old.
Rómulo Fernández: bruises approximately eight days old in the right lower eyelid, caused by a blunt object, possibly a punch.
Milito: ecchymosis in the inguinoscrotal region, caused by a blunt object.
Carlos Neme: punctate scars on the penis and scrotum, the same type as those of Rearte.
Domingo Prieto: contusion on his right knee and a superficial wound on his right arm; these injuries are in the process of fully healing and are three or four days old.
Then Dr. Schaposnik said:
I am not going to continue reading the records of the trial that convincingly demonstrate how poorly the prisoners were treated by the Lanús Bureau of Investigation. Commissioner Mucci, who led the investigation in Lanús, is still in office . . . What I posit here are examples. My presentation would be endless if I had set myself the task of extracting all of the necessary notes from the dossiers . . .
Does this not warrant another press conference? If we admit that a public reaction must be incited against terrorism in the streets (and I don’t disagree), can’t we also see how urgent it is that we support a great transformation in public opinion, one in favor of eliminating the high-up terrorists, the State torturers and the executioners, for all time?