The parish priest of Sorbolo (Parma) accused of crimes against humanity will probably be handed over to the authorities by the end of the year

Don Franco Reverberi, the 86-year-old priest of the diocese of Parma accused of crimes against humanity, including the murder in 1976 of the 20-year-old Peronist Josè Guillermo Beron, who is still missing, and of having witnessed the torture sessions to which prisoners of General Videla’s regime were subjected during the years of the military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983.

The Court of Cassation, confirming what was decided by the Court of Appeal of Bologna, rejected the appeal against extradition presented by the priest’s defense and accepted the arguments of the lawyer Arturo Salerni, representing the Argentine embassy.

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio has 45 days from receiving the provision to arrange for the priest to be handed over to Buenos Aires.

Reverberi, a military chaplain in Mendoza in 1980, was wanted for some acts that occurred in the clandestine detention center La Departamental by the Argentine justice system which was investigating the murders and disappearances of thousands of young people as part of the so-called Condor Plan.

In the spring of 2011, when he was summoned by the federal prosecutor, the priest – who has always declared himself innocent – had found refuge in Italy, to be precise in Sorbolo (where he was born in 1937), a small town in the province of Parma where he also celebrated mass.

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“This is an important step forward towards compensation for the victims since the extradition opens the way to the trial for Reverberi, a refugee from Argentine justice since 2011”, comments Richard Ermili, the lawyer, reached by telephone by Parma Repubblica. who follows the case in Argentina as a representative of the Civil Association Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (Apdh) of San Rafael on behalf of the Argentine Public Prosecutor’s Office.

“The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights celebrates the result of the sentence which rejected the appeal made by Reverberi against extradition. The transfer, which must be carried out within the next 45 days, will allow the criminal trial to continue in which Reverberi will have to respond to accusations of complicity in the disappearance of Josè Beròn, participation in collective torture and other crimes committed in 1976 in the clandestine center of detention of San Rafael, province of Mendoza, known as Departamental”.

For the relatives of the victims as well as for the survivors, Ermili continues, “the fact that Reverberi has to answer in court represents compensation. The wounds of peoples are healed with justice.”