Chilean Justice Sentences Musician Victor Jara's Murderers

Santiago de Chile, Jul 3 (Prensa Latina) After several years of investigations, the Chilean justice sentenced nine retired soldiers by the murder of Chilean artist Victor Jara on September 16, 1973.

The singer-songwriter, theater director and professor, was savagely tortured by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who used to vent his anger on all people who had leftist ideas. Jara was a member of the Communist Party.

Jara, who fervently supported the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende until his overthrow by the coup d'etat on September 11, 1973, also received 44 bullets from the military.

Carried along with another 5,000 people to the then Estadio Chile, Victor Jara was brutally tortured when he was recognized by the pro-coup military men.

Judge Miguel Vazquez sentenced Hugo Sanchez Marmonti, Raul Jofre, Edwin Dimter Bianchi, Nelson Haase, Ernesto Bethke Wulf, Juan Jara Quintana, Hernan Chacon and Patricio Vasquez Donoso to 15 years and one day for their crime.

The group was sentenced as the authors of the murders of Jara and the former director of prisons Littre Quiroga Carvajal.

'The Minister of Human Rights Miguel Vazquez Plaza condemned nine members of the Army in retirement for their responsibility in the homicides of singer-songwriter Victor Jara Martinez and de Littre Quiroga,' said a press release.

The court also sentenced the accused to another three years in prison for the simple kidnapping of both victims.

For the same case, which left Chile without the emblematic composer of 'The Right to Live in Peace' or 'I Remember You Amanda', Officer Rolando Melo Silva was sentenced to five years and one day in prison for his crime as an accessory to both murders.