Chilean ex-General Gets Prison for Post-Coup Murder of Americans

A Chilean judge has sentenced a retired general to seven years in prison for the murder of Americans Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi in the days after the country's 1973 military coup.

Horman's disappearance and his father's search for him in the aftermath of the September 11, 1973 coup that put general Augusto Pinochet in power was chronicled in the 1982 movie "Missing."

A court statement said Judge Jorge Zepeda sentenced retired Army brigadier general Pedro Espinoza to seven years in prison "for his responsibility as the author of both murders."

Rafael Gonzalez, a former civilian air force employee, got two years for serving as Espinoza's accomplice in the Americans' death.

Horman, a scriptwriter working for a Chilean film company, was picked up by a military patrol on September 18, 1973 after being accused of "subversive" activities for denouncing CIA involvement in the coup against President Salvador Allende.

Terrugi was a 24-year-old student who published a leftist newsletter. He disappeared between September 21 and 22, 1973.

The court statement said they were singled out by a U.S. military intelligence unit that collected information on Americans engaged in "political extremism" in the United States and abroad.

Besides the prison sentences, the judge ordered that the Chilean state compensate the families of Horman and Terrugi with $315,000.

Espinoza, who is in a special military prison for other human rights violations, can appeal the judge's verdict.

More than 3,000 people were killed and 38,000 tortured during the Pinochet regime, which lasted until 1990.