Argentine general jailed for racist remarks

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3019090.stm

Argentine general jailed for racist remarks


Suarez Mason tried to defend his comments
One of the most notorious figures from Argentina's former military dictatorship
has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after being found guilty of making
anti-Semitic remarks.
Former general Guillermo Suarez Mason was found guilty of racial discrimination
for comments he made to a magazine in 1996.

He said he did not trust Jews at the time of the dictatorship that left
thousands dead and missing.

Federal Judge Norberto Oyarbide sentenced Suarez Mason: "For having justified
the crime, for having made an exaltation of the torture and of the activity
that developed in the last genocidal dictatorship that terrorised the country
and for the discrimination in the Jewish community."

He is wanted in Germany in connection with the murder of a German student
Elisabeth Kaesemann who was kidnapped in Argentina in 1977.

Suarez Mason was also found guilty in his absence for kidnapping and killing
eight Italians during Argentina's military regime. He was sentenced to life
imprisonment.

The ex-general tried to defend himself in court saying: "Jews are Argentines
but a different group."

But in the comments he made to a magazine in 1996, Suarez Mason said: "I am not
an anti-Semite. I know Jews well, which is different. I am wary of them."

The ex-general is currently under house arrest in Buenos Aires on charges of
kidnapping children during the dirty war.

It is thought that about 300 children were taken from their mothers and given
to the families of army and police personnel for adoption.

Human rights groups say the babies' parents were then killed.