Name Basilio Dozo | ||
Born February 1, 1929 (age 95) ( 1929-02-01 ) Rank Brigadier General(equivalent to 3-star or 4-star rank) | ||
Brigadier General Basilio Arturo Ignacio Lami Dozo (1 February 1929 – 1 February 2017) was a member of the Argentine Air Force. He participated in the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganisation Process (1976–1983) and, along with Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri and Jorge Isaac Anaya, was a member of the Third Military Junta that ruled Argentina between 1981 and 1982. Alongside Reynaldo Bignone and Omar Graffigna he was one of the last surviving members of the dictatorship.
In the 1985 Trial of the Juntas he was charged with, and acquitted of, acts of torture, making false declarations, and kidnappings.
In 1989 he was sentenced to an eight-year prison term in the criminal proceedings that arose from the 1982 Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), in which he had served as commander-in-chief of the Air Force. In 1990 he received a presidential pardon from Carlos Menem and was allowed to keep his military rank.
In 2003 the Spanish justice system sought his extradition in order to stand trial in Spain for crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship. Initially the government of Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar ruled the extradition inadmissible but, in 2005, the Supreme Court overturned that decision and ordered extradition proceedings to go ahead.
Personal life
Basilio Lami Dozo Arturo Ignacio was born into a traditional family in the province of Santiago del Estero who are descendants of immigrants from Syria and Lebanon who came to the Republic of Argentina before the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire after the World War. He died on 1 February 2017, on his 88th birthday.