In first, an Argentine court convicts ex-officers of crimes against trans women during dictatorship

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Judges overseeing a high-profile human rights trial in Argentina convicted 11 former officials of crimes against humanity on Tuesday, in the first case to focus on the former military dictatorship's overlooked practice of committing sexual violence against transgender women.

The trial at the court in La Plata, a southern suburb of the capital, spanned nearly four years and added new details and insight to previously chronicled atrocities, deepening the nation's understanding of its traumatic history. Transgender plaintiffs took the witness stand for the first time in a series of chilling hearings that put a spotlight both on the suffering of the transgender community and on the widespread tactic of sexual violence under the right-wing dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

Human rights groups estimate that 30,000 people suspected of opposing the military government were abducted, systematically tortured in clandestine detention centers and “disappeared” during the time.

In the highly anticipated verdict, 10 defendants were sentenced to life in prison and one to 25 years in prison for their roles in a scheme of violent repression that included killing, torture, sexual violence and the abduction of children born in captivity, among other alleged crimes that took place across four clandestine detention centers in the province of Buenos Aires. The judges acquitted one former official.