http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=316289&version=1&template_id=43&parent_id=19
Dutch pilot held for 'death flights' Publish Date: Wednesday,23 September, 2009, at 10:41 PM Doha Time Reuters/Amsterdam/Madrid Spanish authorities arrested a Dutch-Argentine airline pilot on charges that decades ago he flew planes used to throw opponents of Argentina's former military junta into the sea, Spain said yesterday. Julio Alberto Poch was arrested after an Argentine judge travelled to Europe and Bali to interview colleagues of his who said the pilot boasted about participating in the so-called death flights, Argentina's Human Rights Secretariat said in a statement. Poch, 57, a retired lieutenant from the Argentine navy, was arrested on Tuesday at Valencia's Manises airport during a stopover on the way back to Amsterdam. Argentina had issued an international arrest warrant and requested that Holland extradite Poch, but he was protected by his Dutch citizenship, the secretariat said. Poch was working for the Dutch airline Transaviathe. An Argentine government report says more than 11,000 people died or disappeared during the so-called "Dirty War," a crackdown on alleged leftists and other opponents of the military regime that ruled from 1976 to 1983. Many of those abducted were sent to torture centres and then murdered. Some were drugged and then dropped out of airplanes or helicopters during flights over the icy South Atlantic or the Rio de la Plata. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
