Argentina: 'Dirty War' Corporal Testifies '4,000 Thrown into Sea Alive'

[Judi Lynn]

2. Another witness speaks who was also involved in the dictatorship's Death Flights.

"Death flights" pilot arrested in Spain goes on trial in Argentina
Julio Alberto Poch allegedly confessed to role in disappearances while drunk

21 FEB 2013 - 14:05 CET



Julio Alberto Poch, a former pilot for the Dutch airline Transavia, holds up a sign protesting his innocence.


A man who is alleged to have been one of the infamous pilots who flew the so-called "death flights" for the Navy Mechanical School (ESMA) during Argentina's Dirty War (1976-1983) declared his innocence on Monday before a Buenos Aires federal court. Julio Alberto Poch, a former pilot for the Dutch airline Transavia, was arrested in Valencia, Spain in 2009 while he was traveling with his family. The 60-year-old Argentinean was extradited to his native country the following year to face 30 kidnapping and murder charges.

In 2003, Poch, under the influence of alcohol, reportedly confessed to two co-workers that he participated in the disappearances of hundreds of arrested dissidents held at the notorious ESMA. The naked prisoners were drugged and tied up and dropped from a plane into the River Plate. Many bodies washed up on the Uruguayan shore.

Poch maintains that his words were misinterpreted.

In 1995, Captain Adolfo Scilingo was one of the first pilots to confess to taking part in the secret flights. He made his confession to journalist Horacio Verbitsky before traveling voluntarily to Spain to cooperate with the investigation of former High Court Judge Baltasar Garzón. Scilingo is serving a long jail sentence following his convictions.

. . .

According to Weert, at one point Poch said there were moments "when he said he was on board the plane and would throw the people off."

More:
https://elpais.com/elpais/2013/02/21/inenglish/1361450401_840071.html

~ ~ ~

More famous, perhaps because he wrote a book about it, was Captain Adolfo Scilingo:

Argentinian jailed for throwing prisoners from plane
Giles Tremlett in Madrid

Tue 19 Apr 2005 19.02 EDT

An Argentinian former naval officer who threw prisoners, drugged and naked, to their death from planes was convicted of crimes against humanity and jailed for a total of 640 years by a Spanish court yesterday for his part in the "dirty war" against dissidents conducted by the Argentinian military regime in the 1970s.

Captain Adolfo Scilingo killed 30 leftwing prisoners, who were thrown out at 4,000 metres (13,000ft) above the Atlantic, on two flights.

Scilingo, 58, will serve a maximum of 30 years.

Judge José Ricardo de Prada said, delivering the judgment, said: "As a macabre joke they would make them [the prisoners] dance to Brazilian music."

The judgment, reached by three judges in the national court in Madrid, described how naval officers tortured victims with electric shocks which burned their flesh. The torture sessions were called "barbecues".

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/20/argentina.gilestremlett




Scilingo, fainting in court. Another one bit the dirt.