Life term for Chilean general's killer in Argentina

A police officer removes handcuffs from Clavel as he arrives at a Buenos Aires court on Monday

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- An Argentine court dealt a life sentence on Monday to an alleged former Chilean spy, found guilty of killing a Chilean general who sought refuge in Argentina following Augusto Pinochet's bloody coup in 1973.

An Argentine federal court found Arancibia Clavel, a Chilean living in Buenos Aires since 1971 and an alleged former agent for Pinochet's now disbanded DINA secret police service, guilty on Monday of double homicide.

General Carlos Prats and his wife Sofia Cuthbert were killed by a car bomb in the Buenos Aires' residential neighborhood of Palermo in September 1974.

"I'm content. After 26 years without knowing the truth, justice was done," Cecilia Prats, one of the general's daughters, told reporters after the sentencing.

Clavel did not show any emotion after the verdict and left the courtroom without acknowledging his mother, who had insisted tearfully that her son was innocent. Clavel's lawyer said he would appeal the court's decision.

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Prats had fled into exile after Pinochet overthrew leftist President Salvador Allende in a coup in 1973. Some 3,000 people were killed or disappeared during Pinochet's ensuing dictatorship, which lasted until 1990.

Argentina filed an extradition request in October with Chile's Supreme Court seeking to question Pinochet on charges related to Prats' death.

Pinochet, 84, is already fighting a possible trial in Chile for human rights abuses during his 17-year rule. He returned home this year after 503 days under arrest in Britain, which ruled he was too old and sick to undergo trial in Spain as requested by a Spanish judge.

Pinochet drew up the rules to restore democracy in Chile and included provisions guaranteeing he would be free from prosecution for his alleged involvement in human rights abuses. But a Chilean court stripped him of his immunity earlier this year, only months after he returned home from Britain.

Prats sought exile in Argentina after his support for Allende led him to resign as head of the Chilean army in 1973. Pinochet succeeded him at the helm of the army and led the coup against the socialist president later that year.

Allende died of a gunshot wound, the origins of which are still hotly debated, when troops loyal to Pinochet stormed the presidential palace.

Human rights abuses were common across Latin America in the 1970s and early 1980's as military governments lashed out at leftist rebels.

In Argentina, human rights groups estimate that 30,000 people were killed or disappeared during the country's 1976-83 military dictatorship.

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