NEW YORK -- The recent sentencing in Spain of an Argentine former navy commander, Adolfo Scilingo, to 640 years in prison for crimes against humanity will have groundbreaking consequences for the trial of those guilty of similar crimes worldwide. As a result of this trial, crimes committed in Chile, Guatemala and Rwanda are already making their way to Spanish courts.
Scilingo's revelations of murder and torture committed by the Argentine military, as revealed by journalist Horacio Verbitsky at the beginning of 1995, sent chills down the backs of human rights activists worldwide. It is believed that around 30,000 Argentines "disappeared" between 1976 and 1983, victims of repression unleashed by the military.
Scilingo's recent trial in Spain -- the first of its kind under Spanish legislation allowing that nation's courts to rule on nondomestic cases of crimes against humanity -- is a significant affirmation of the principle of universal jurisdiction over those heinous crimes. The Spanish court sentence confirms that national borders do not prevent the prosecution of those guilty of crimes against humanity.