German Court reopens case into ex Argentine dictator

Germany: The court in Nuremberg confirmed on Thursday a warrant of arrest against ex Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, following a murder case into missing Germans during the last military junta in Argentina was reopened.

An investigation of Videla's role in the disappearance of Rolf Stawowiok was dismissed a year and a half ago, when no physical traces of the German citizen could be found.

However, a spokesman for the Nuremberg court, Thomas Koch said the remains of the German national have recently been discovered in Argentina and bear signs that he had been shot.

Koch corroborated the decision to reopen a probe into the involvement of Videla in the killing of Stawowiok.

But the ex dictator has refused to be extradited for being tried at international courts. Videla had served five years of a life sentence for a spate of murders, kidnappings, torture, crimes against humanity when in 1990 the then Argentine President Carlos Menem issued state pardon.

In 2006 however a judge ruled the pardon to be unconstitutional, and the following year a federal court reinstated his human-rights abuse convictions.

The 84-year-old Videla, who ruled from 1976 to 1981, is currently being held at a military prison. Berlin, Dec 24, Prensa Latina