Alfredo Astiz Alfredo Ignacio Astiz ( born 8 November 1951 ) was a Commander , intelligence officer , Marine and maritime commando in the Argentine Navy during the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla during the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional ( 1976 – 1983 ) . He was known as " El Ángel Rubio de la Muerte " ( the " Blond Angel of Death " ) , and had a reputation as a notorious torturer . He was discharged from the military in 1998 after defending his actions in a press interview . He was a member of GT 3 . 3 . 2 ( Task Force 3 . 3 . 2 ) based in the Naval Mechanics School ( ESMA ) in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War of 1976 - 1983 . The school was adapted as a secret detention and torture center for political prisoners . As many as 5 , 000 political prisoners were interrogated , tortured and murdered in the ESMA during those years . GT3 . 3 . 2 was involved in some of the 8 , 961 deaths and other crimes documented by a national commission after the restoration of democratic government in Argentina in 1983 . Astiz , a specialist in the infiltration of human right s organizations , was implicated in the December 1977 kidnapping of twelve human rights activists , including Azucena Villaflor and two other founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo , and two French nationals , Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon , who were Catholic nuns . None of the twelve was seen alive again in freedom and all were believed killed , rumored to be among the bodies washed up on beaches south of Buenos Aires in late 1977 . At the beginning of the 1982 Falklands War , Astiz surrendered with his team to British forces . Sweden and France wanted to question him about " disappearances " of their nationals at his hands but , considering issues of the Geneva Conventions , the United Kingdom had him questioned by a British policeman . Astiz refused to answer any questions . The UK did not think it had grounds to hold or prosecute him , as he was suspected for crimes committed in Argentina that were not then defined as against international law , and repatriated him . In 1986 and 1987 , Argentina passed the Pardon Laws , providing a kind of amnesty to military and security officers for crimes committed during the Dirty War . In 1990 , a French court convicted Astiz " in absentia " for the kidnapping of Duquet and Domon , and sentenced him to life imprisonment . After the Argentine Supreme Court ' s 2005 ruling that the Pardon Laws ( " Ley de Obediencia Debida " and " Ley de Punto Final " ) were unconstitutional , the government re - opened prosecution of war crimes cases . That year Astiz was detained on charges of kidnapping and torture . A mass grave with several unidentified bodies was found in July 2005 in a cemetery about 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires ; forensic DNA testing identified Duquet , Villaflor , and two other founding Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo . The prosecution of charges against Astiz included murder . Together with numerous other defendants associatd with ESMA , Astiz was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Argentina for crimes against humanity on 26 October 2011 . Naval career . Under Lieutenant Commander Jorge Eduardo Acosta , the GT 3 . 3 . 2 ( Task Force 3 . 3 . 2 ) was based in the Naval Mechanics School ( ESMA ) in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War . As many as 5 , 000 political prisoners were interrogated , tortured , and murdered in the ESMA ( or elsewhere by their personnel ) during those years . GT332 was involved in some of the 8 , 961 deaths and other crimes documented by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons ( CONADEP ) after the restoration of democratic government in Argentina in 1983 . Intelligence officer . During the Dirty War , Astiz specialized as an intelligence officer with GT 3 . 3 . 2 in infiltrating human rights groups in Argentina , particularly those active in Buenos Aires . He used the false name of " Gustavo Niño . " He stayed with a group long enough to identify key members and then organized their abductions by his military forces . Prisoners were taken to the secret detention camp at ESMA and interrogated under torture for information about other members and activities . Most detainees were murdered by the military or death squads . Astiz was believed to have kidnapped and tortured hundreds of people during 1976 and 1977 . Among these were several nationals of other countries , whose cases received international attention as their governments tried to find them and to prosecute suspects . In 1976 and 1977 , Astiz ' team kidnapped and " disappeared " three Italian nationals : Angela Maria Aieta in 1976 , and Giovanni Pegoraro and his pregnant daughter Susana Pegoraro in 1977 . Susana was believed to have given birth in prison before her death , and it was suspected her child was given illegally for adoption by a military family . On January 27 , 1977 Dagmar Hagelin , a 17 - year - old girl holding Swedish citizenship through her father Ragnar - Erland Hagelin , was shot and wounded by Astiz while attempting to escape detention . From the early 1980s , Ragnar Hagelin battled tirelessly to bring Astiz to justice . His wife and Dagmar ' s mother was an Argentine citizen named Buccicardi . Dagmar Hagelin was never found . In 2000 the Argentine government paid compensation to Ragnar Hagelin and his wife for their loss . It was reported at the time that Astiz mistook Dagmar Hagelin for a Montonero activist to whom she bore some physical resemblance , and who was a mutual acquaintance of fellow - activist Norma Susana Burgos . Witnesses testified to having seen Hagelin later at the ESMA secret detention and torture center , and alleged that Astiz was in charge of her interrogation . She was never seen alive again after that . According to the Argentine Vice - Minister of Foreign Affairs , tasked with following up Swedish complaints at the time of Hagelin ' s shooting and abduction , Lieutenant Commander Jorge Eduardo Acosta , commander of , said that " setting her [ Hagelin ] free is out of the question . We must not give in to public opinion . We must appear strong . " His resistance was believed to be related to the severity of the injuries suffered in the shooting . Dagmar was said to be paralyzed and to have lost cognitive abilities . Inés Carazzo , a detainee enslaved and regularly raped by Captain Antonio Pernias , another GT332 officer , claims that Acosta ordered that Hagelin be put to death in a " death flight " . Hagelin joined the ranks of the " disappeared " sometime during 1977 . There is no direct evidence that Astiz had any part in Hagelin ' s treatment after shooting and kidnapping Hagelin . There is no evidence of who killed her . In December 1977 Astiz organized the kidnapping of about a dozen people associated with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo , including the founders Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti and two others . The non - violent group of mothers organized to learn the fates of their missing children and protested against the thousands of " disappeared . " He also kidnapped two French nationals who were Catholic nuns , Leonie Duquet and Alice Domon . None was seen alive again after having been tortured at ESMA and " transferred " , a euphemism for being taken elsewhere to be killed . Asize was witnessed torturing the nuns at ESMA by beating them , immersing them in water and applying electrified cattle prods to their breasts , genitals and mouths . A staged photograph intended to portray their support of the Montoneros , a Peronist leftist group , was leaked to the press . Despite repeated efforts by France to trace the religious sisters , the Argentine government denied all knowledge of them . In late December 1977 , unidentified bodies began washing up on beaches hundreds of kilometers south of Buenos Aires after heavy storms . Autopsies revealed they had died on impact , apparently having been thrown out of planes over the ocean , intended never to be discovered . In March 1978 Agence France - Presse reported that the bodies were believed to be the two nuns and several members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo , but this was not confirmed by the government . These and other bodies washed ashore were buried in mass graves at General Lavalle Cemetery , about 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires . In July 2005 several bodies of unidentified women were found in a mass grave in General Lavalle Cemetery , forensic DNA testing by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team identified the remains of Duquet , Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti , and two other founders of the Mothers of the Plaza in August 2005 . Domon ' s remains have not been found . Falklands War . Lieutenant Commander Alfredo Astiz commanded a special team of fifteen Tactical Divers Group ( frogmen ) , dubbed " los lagartos " ( the lizards ) , which carried out the first act of aggression in the Falklands War . On March 19 , 1982 they landed on South Georgia , under the guise of workers of the Argentine scrap metal dealer Constantino Davidoff . Officially they were to scrap three derelict whaling stations at Leith Harbour which had been purchased by their employer in 1979 . They dressed up in uniform and raised the Argentine flag in full view of a British Antarctic Survey party . The next day , March 20 , the local head of the British Antarctic Survey handed Astiz a note transcribed from a radio message by the Governor of the Falklands . The note told Astiz to take down his flag and leave . Astiz took down the flag but did not leave . Later that day , , the Royal Navy ' s ice patrol ship , was dispatched from Stanley on the Falklands to Grytviken , the main British Antarctic Survey base on South Georgia , with 22 Royal Marines ordered to evict him . They arrived on March 23 , hours before a number of Argentine marines landed near Grytviken . More Argentine marines turned up over the following days and an armed clash occurred at Grytviken . After damaging an Argentine frigate and forcing down an Aerospatiale Puma helicopter , inflicting casualties in both cases , the Royal Marines surrendered to overwhelming force in order to avoid needless loss of life . They were quickly repatriated to the UK . The British sent in more forces and caused the capitulation of the Argentine garrison on 23 April . Astiz insisted on signing a surrender document for himself and his small band although they were covered by the surrender of his commanding officer . As a result , Alfredo Astiz was mistakenly publicized as the commander of the garrison on South Georgia . Astiz is reported to have committed several war crimes during this period , notably attempting to lure Royal Navy helicopters to land on a helipad he had previously mined , after he had surrendered to British forces . The pilots were suspicious , and landed elsewhere . Astiz also encouraged Royal Marines to cross a minefield after he had surrendered . The mines did not function correctly , as their trigger mechanisms had been frozen solid by the sub - zero weather conditions . Astiz was never tried for these crimes . Prisoners of war . Soon after the British recapture of South Georgia , Nicanor Costa Méndez , the Argentine Foreign Minister , said that Argentina was technically in a state of war with the UK . At about the same time an Argentine prisoner ( Félix Artuso ) was shot dead by a Royal Marine who mistakenly thought he was trying to scuttle a captured submarine . The UK informed Argentina , through Brazilian diplomats , that a board of inquiry would be convened under the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions to review Artuso ' s death . The next day the UK claimed the Argentine prisoners were not prisoners of war because they were taken before Argentina declared hostilities . Six days later they changed their mind . In a 1983 article , Meyer opines that the UK changed its position because it had already implied the Argentine detainees were prisoners of war by applying provisions of the Geneva Conventions . About three weeks after the Argentine prisoners were captured , the UK announced it would repatriate all 151 soldiers and 39 civilians , five of whom were not Argentine citizens , held in detention on South Georgia . Because of the publicity related to the surrender of Astiz , he came to the attention of the Swedish and French governments , which had tried to gain justice for their citizens from Argentina . Their representatives informed the UK that Astiz was accused of criminal acts against their nationals . As the Argentine prisoners were being shipped to Ascension Island to be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC ) and flown home , Sweden asked to question Astiz . The French government asked that Astiz be held while they sought legal remedies for the " disappearances " of the nuns . Both countries stated that they had eyewitnesses for the " disappearances . " The UK initially responded that concerned parties should talk to the ICRC , as it would be taking custody of the prisoners . The ICRC refused the countries ' requests to talk to Astiz if it took custody of him . Both nations stepped up diplomatic pressure on the UK not to transfer Astiz to the ICRC . The UK decided to send home the 189 other detainees , " as an act of compassion . " Astiz was to be held until " the end of the belligerency " , initially on Ascension . Repatriation . Two weeks later , under pressure from public opinion at home and by the French and Swedish governments , the UK decided to buy time by transporting Astiz by ship from Ascension to the UK . While Astiz was in transit , the UK announced he would be made available for interview by representatives of the French and Swedish governments . Soon after the Argentine government made veiled threats against the welfare of three UK journalists they had arrested as spies , and linked their release to that of Astiz . Astiz was questioned in June , but it was performed by a Detective Chief Superintendent of the Sussex Constabulary . Both times he was questioned Astiz remained silent . The UK gave a detailed report of the fruitless interviews to the Swedish and French governments . Astiz was repatriated to Argentina on 10 June 1982 , just before the start of the battle for Port Stanley and the Argentine capitulation on 14 June . The UK government had chosen to read the Third Geneva Convention as protecting Astiz from criminal prosecution in the UK or extradition . Meyer argues that this was an incorrect reading but was justified at the time by four points . Astiz was in protective custody because of special circumstances , i . e . surrendering during war . The Geneva Conventions exhort custodial powers to leniency . Astiz was accused of crimes — kidnapping , wounding and torture — which were illegal in Argentina and he could , in theory , be prosecuted there . Meyer argues that nothing in the Geneva Conventions expressly prohibited the prosecution or extradition of Astiz . However , the extradition treaties between Argentina and the UK , and Sweden and France , referred only to crimes committed within the territory of the requesting state and crimes against international law . Astiz was accused of crimes committed in Argentina against their nationals which were not , at the time , crimes under international law . Criminal prosecution of Astiz within the UK was ruled out during his detention because he had not committed any crimes against British subjects , their possessions or the British State . Meyer argues that victims of Astiz , or their representatives , might have been successful in securing damages from him if they had brought a civil action while he was in the UK . As with criminal prosecution , nothing in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 remove the civil liability of prisoners of war for actions committed prior to capture . A British court has jurisdiction over a foreign tort whenever the defendant is in the UK , if the alleged act would have been actionable as a tort if committed in Britain , and it was an offence under the laws of the foreign country . Torture and kidnap by government officials is actionable as a tort if committed in England . Proving that it was an offence under the laws of Argentina would have been more difficult . English courts assume that the authorised actions of officials of a foreign government within its sovereign territory are not actionable within their jurisdiction unless those actions are outside the scope of the powers of the government . Since torture is expressly forbidden in the Argentine constitution , Astiz could have been prosecuted for acting outside his powers as an agent of the Argentine government in torturing Domon and Duquet . Although there were witnesses prepared to testify that they had seen Astiz torture Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet , no prosecution of Astiz was made on these grounds at the time . Legal actions . On 16 March 1990 Astiz was convicted and sentenced " in absentia " to life imprisonment by a French Assize Court for his role in the torture and disappearance of the two French nuns , Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet . French law allows trials , " in absentia " if necessary , of foreigners accused of breaking French laws in other jurisdictions if the crimes are committed against French nationals . For years , Astiz was protected by the Pardon Laws in 1986 and 1987 ( the Full Stop and Due Obedience laws , respectively ) which had shielded military and security officers from prosecution . He has several times been physically attacked by civilians ; a well - known assault took place in Bariloche in the mid - 1990s . In 1998 he told the Argentine magazine " Trespuntos " in an interview that he was " the best - trained man in Argentina to kill journalists and politicians . " He also reportedly said , " I ' m not sorry for anything , " and defended the actions of the military dictatorship . He was discharged from the military for his comments . Astiz was arrested by Argentine police in July 2001 . The Pardon Laws did not cover baby theft . Italy was seeking extradition of Astiz for the kidnapping and torture of three Italian nationals in 1976 and 1977 , and for the theft of a baby daughter born to one of them : Angela Maria Aieta in 1976 , and the kidnapping of Giovanni Pegoraro and his pregnant daughter Susana Pegoraro in 1977 . It is believed that Susana gave birth in prison before her death , and Astiz arranged for her baby to be given for illegal adoption to an Argentine military family . Argentine newspapers reported at the time of Astiz ' s arrest that the alleged daughter is living in the port city of Mar del Plata . Astiz avoided extradition . In 2005 the Argentine Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the amnesty laws introduced during the transition to democracy ( " Ley de Punto Final " , 1986 and " Ley de Obediencia Debida , " 1987 ) . Since the identification of Duquet ' s body , France has been seeking extradition of Astiz on charges of murdering Duquet . After this ruling , the government re - opened prosecution of war crimes committed during the military dictatorship . In 2005 , Astiz was detained on charges of kidnapping and torture , centered on the 12 victims of December 1977 . Astiz and 17 other defendants associated with the operations at ESMA were " charged with various cases of kidnapping , torture , and murder relating to 86 victims . " Following a 22 - month trial , on October 27 , 2011 , Alfredo Astiz was convicted by an Argentinian court and sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity committed during the Dirty War . Of the other defendants , 11 were also " sentenced to life in prison , four received sentences ranging from 18 to 25 years , and two were acquitted . " Since the Kirchner government started prosecuting cases again , Astiz is one of 259 people who by late 2011 had been convicted of human rights abuses committed during the dictatorship . Charges of French intelligence participation . Along with Luis María Mendía , former chief of naval operations in 1976 – 77 , Astiz testified in January 2007 before Argentine judges that a French intelligence agent , Bertrand de Perseval , had participated in the abduction of the two French nuns . Perseval , who lives today in Thailand , denied any links with the abduction . He has acknowledged being a former member of the Organisation de l ' armée secrète ( OAS ) , an underground group which fought to subvert the French government of Charles de Gaulle , and having escaped to Argentina after the March 1962 Evian Accords , which ended the 1954 – 62 Algerian War . It has long been alleged that France arranged to have its intelligence agents train their Argentine ( and other Latin American ) counterparts in the counter - insurgency techniques they used in the Algerian War , which included interrogation under torture . Referring to Marie Monique Robin ' s 2003 film documentary titled " The Death Squads - the French School " ( " Les escadrons de la mort - l ' école française " ) , which claims this , Mendía asked the Argentine Court to summon to court the former French president Valéry Giscard d ' Estaing , the former French premier Pierre Messmer , the former French ambassador to Buenos Aires Françoise de la Gosse , and all those in office in the French embassy in Buenos Aires between 1976 and 1983 . Besides this " French connection , " Mendía has also blamed the former head of state Isabel Perón and the former ministers Carlos Ruckauf and Antonio Cafiero , who had signed anti - subversion decrees before Videla ' s 1976 " coup d ' état . " According to the ESMA survivor Graciela Daleo , this is another tactic to absolve the perpetrators of culpability , as did the 1987 " Obediencia Debida " Act , by trying to shift it to the predecessors of the military government , and the French . Daleo points out that claiming to be obeying Isabel Perón ' s anti - subversion decrees is grotesque , as those who murdered in the name of the decrees were the ones who had deposed her . Personal life . Astiz was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 .