Pilots accused of Argentina 'death flights' go on trial

The trial has begun in Buenos Aires for 68 people accused of kidnappings, torture and murder during Argentina's military dictatorship.

The defendants are alleged to have carried out crimes against political prisoners.

Taty Almeida is from a human rights group made up of mothers whose children disappeared between 1976-1983.

She said she had come to the trial because of her age: "A lot of mothers, grandmothers, relatives, fathers didn't think we would be able to be part of these historic days," she added.

The crimes are said to have happened inside Argentina's Naval Mechanics School, which is now a human rights museum. During the military junta, it was used as a prison for 5,000 left-wing activists – many of whom disappeared.

The trial deals with the cases of 789 victims.

Among the accused are eight so-called 'death pilots', suspected of flying over the River Plate or sea and dropping drugged prisoners to their deaths.

Adolfo Scilingo, a pilot who confessed to carrying out death flights said: "Throwing out sleeping human beings, I don't know. Do you know someone who could get over that? We are human beings and what we were throwing out were human beings."

Victims of the death flights are thought to include two French nuns – Leonie Duquet and Alice Domon. Duquet's body was one of the few to ever be found washed up on the coast of Argentina.

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