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June 3 (UPI) -- A judge in Chile sentenced 106 former intelligence agents for their role in the kidnapping and murder of 16 leftist activists during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. Sentences for the former agents ranged from 541 days to 20 years in prison. Judge Hernan Cristoso handed down the 714-page ruling on Friday night.
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The convictions focused on the 16 leftists who were arrested and sent to torture centers in Santiago between June 1974 and January 1975 and never seen alive again.
Two former generals, Cesar Manriquez Bravo and Raul Iturriaga Neumann, were sentenced alongside several other senior officers at the National Intelligence Directorate, some of whom were already serving sentences for other human rights violations.
The Chilean Judiciary said 13 additional agents who were charged were absolved from the sentencing.
Cristoso also ordered the state to pay more than $7.5 billion as compensation for the families of the victims.
Government investigations uncovered that nearly 3,000 people disappeared and 30,000 were tortured during Pinochet's rule from 1973 to 1990. Cristoso said the government tried to cover up many of the disappearances by claiming the victims had fled the country or died fighting rival groups.
