Argentine junta leader Massera dies
Emilio Massera always defended his actions
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Former Argentine military ruler Emilio Eduardo Massera has died at the age of 85 after a long illness.
The former admiral was one of the three-man military junta that ruled Argentina between 1976 and 1983.
Mr Massera was placed under house arrest after being convicted of the torture and murder of civilians during Argentina's "Dirty War".
He avoided prosecution on further charges after a court ruled he was too ill to stand trial.
Germany, Spain, Italy and France had also sought his extradition over the killing of their citizens during military rule in Argentina.
As commander of the Navy, Emilio Massera helped lead the coup that toppled President Isabel Eva Peron in 1976 at a time of rising political violence.
Led by General Jorge Videla, the junta launched a campaign of oppression against left-wing opposition groups.
Torture centre
As head of the navy, Mr Massera was responsible for Argentina's most notorious torture centre, the navy mechanical school in Buenos Aires.
Thousands of political prisoners were tortured and killed there, their bodies dumped dead or drugged into the sea from military aircraft.
In a 1985 trial of junta leaders, Mr Massera was convicted of murder, torture and robbery. But he served only five years of his life sentence before he was released under an amnesty law.
In 1998 he was put under house arrest on charges of stealing babies born to political prisoners and giving them up for adoption, a crime not covered by the amnesty law.
And in 2007 his life sentence was reinstated after the courts ruled that the amnesty law was unconstitutional.
But after suffering a stroke in 2002, he was considered too ill to face further prosecution, sparing him the multiple trials being faced the former President Jorge Videla and other junta figures.
At his trial in 1985, Mr Massera refused to apologise for the abuses, saying the military was fighting a war against left-wing subversion.
"Nobody has to defend himself for having won a fair war," he said. "You can't interrogate a terrorist as if you were questioning a child."
Human rights groups say up to 30,000 Argentines were killed during military rule.
Argentine admiral and member of the   has died at the age of 85. 


Massera died after suffering from an episode of . He was one of the three men to rule Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Some human rights groups said that up to 30,000 people were killed during hi military rule.

As Commander of the  Massera, along with General  and  toppled the then Argentine President . The three ran the country under military rule for 7 years.

Massera ran the torture centre at the navy mechanical school in Buenos Aires. There he oversaw the death of thousands of political prisoners. In 1985 at the trial of the junta leaders, Massera was sentenced to life in prison on charges of murder, torture and robbery. He only served five years of his sentence after he was released under an .

However, in 1998 he was placed under . He was charged with the stealing of babies born to political prisoners, a crime not protected under amnesty law. He had his life sentence reinstated in 2007, but due to a stroke he suffered in 2002, he was deemed too ill to face prosecution.