Ex-Secret Policemen Convicted in Chile
Two leaders of the secret police during Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s regime were convicted Friday in the 1976 assassination in Washington of Orlando Letelier, an exiled foe of the military government.
Lawyer Fabiola Letelier, a sister of the slain official, said she was informed of the convictions by the Supreme Court. She said Justice Adolfo Banados had sentenced retired Gen. Manuel Contreras to seven years in prison and Brig. Pedro Espinoza, who is still on active duty, to six years.
A court official said an announcement would be made only after the two officers and their lawyers had been informed of the ruling.
Orlando Letelier was a foreign minister and envoy to Washington during the leftist government of President Salvador Allende, toppled in the bloody 1973 coup led by Pinochet.
He was arrested the day of the coup and forced into exile abroad. He was killed by a car bomb in Washington on Sept. 21, 1976, along with an American aide, Ronnie Moffitt.
Contreras and Espinoza have repeatedly denied involvement in the case. Contreras has said the assassination was the work of the CIA.
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