2 Chilean Police Executed Despite ‘Crime Club’ Claim

Firing squads executed two policemen before dawn today for 10 murders that one claimed were ordered by a right-wing “crime club” that targeted opponents of President Augusto Pinochet’s military rule.

Lawyers for the murder victims’ families had joined defense attorneys in fruitless appeals of the death sentences, arguing that evidence against members of a higher-ranking death squad would die with the two policemen.

But Pinochet closed the case Monday, refusing to grant clemency appeals by the condemned men.

Two teams of eight prison guards each fired Israeli-made Uzi rifles at the prisoners, Jorge Sagredo, 29, and Carlos Topp, 35, who were blindfolded with black cloth and seated 15 yards away in the lighted courtyard of a former women’s jail.

Their hands were tied behind their chairs and they had circular red paper targets over their hearts.

The simultaneous executions took place at 5:53 a.m. as 26 journalists watched.

The two policemen were convicted two years ago in the “lovers’ lane” murders that terrorized the coastal resort city of Vina del Mar between August, 1980, and November, 1981.

What first appeared to be the work of sex-crazed psychopaths took on political overtones as the toll of victims mounted. Most of the victims turned out to be leftists opposed to Pinochet’s military regime, which seized power in a 1973 coup.

Topp maintained his innocence, but Sagredo testified that he and Topp took part in some of the killings after being given drugs and promised payment by a “crime club” that included a leading building contractor and five other “executives”--all unidentified--who wanted to rid Chile of political troublemakers.

The judge ruled that Sagredo and Topp acted alone in the 10 murders and sentenced them to death last January.