Argentine admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera dies at age 85

November 9, 2010

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.