Christian von Wernich

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Christian Federico von Wernich (born May 27, 1938 in Concordia ) is a German-born Catholic priest from Argentina .

During the military dictatorship (1976-1983) he was a police chaplain in the province of Buenos Aires . He abused his position in the clergy to obtain information from political prisoners during confession.

After the dictatorship, the church sent him to a parish 250 km south of Buenos Aires. From 1996 he hid in Chile and lived under the cover name Cristian González as a pastor in El Quisco . In 2003 he was tracked down by the journalist Hernán Brienza.

On October 9, 2007, a La Plata court sentenced him to life imprisonment for his involvement in seven murders, 42 kidnappings and 31 tortures. More than 120 witnesses were heard during the trial, including the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel , the bishop and liberation theologian Miguel Hesayne and the priest and human rights activist Rubén Capitanio , who had attended the seminary with von Wernich. Witnesses said that von Wernich interrogated her under torture and also participated in mock executions. In 2010 it became known that von Wernich was still working as a priest in prison and was donating Holy Mass there .

literature

  • Hernán Brienza: Maldito tú eres. El caso Von Wernich. Iglesia yreprión ilegal . Marea Editorial, Buenos Aires 2003, ISBN 987-21109-0-5 ( Colección Historia urgente. Volume 1). ( Online )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Article about von Wernich in prison