Captain Adolfo Scilingo may not be a household name in the United States, but Scilingo hit international headlines in 2005, after being sentenced to 640 years of imprisonment for his crimes against humanity carried out during Argentina’s military dictatorship in 1976-1983. During the military junta (military dictatorship), the Argentinian navy would take their captives and board them onto planes every Wednesday night for two years (1977-1978), and dump bodies into the ocean. Adolfo Scilingo was one of the many men who were issued the order to dump bodies from the “death flights”. Scilingo is directly responsible for the dumping of thirty people. The thirty individuals who he stripped down naked and drugged unconscious just before pushing them through the exit latch to their deaths has haunted Scilingo for life. Scilingo decided to tell his story because, “he was so tormented…show more content… Scilingo was not brought to justice by the Argentinian government or by the International Criminal Court, but was instead tried under the Spanish Supreme Court. This trial is significant because, “for the first time, a Spanish Court has tried and convicted a perpetrator of international crimes committed in another country” (IRCT 2005). This trial was allowed because, “jurisdictional borders of States do not prevent them from prosecuting perpetrators of crimes against humanity and torture” (IRCT 2005). Scilingo’s offences violate crimes against humanity and therefore can be put to trial under Spanish law. Although Scilingo was not found guilty of crimes relating to torture, genocide, or terrorism, he was found guilty in an 11-4 vote for the murder of 30 individuals during the two-year death flights (Wilson 2008). Scilingo, although sentenced to 640 years will only serve a maximum sentence of 30
