Paul Schaefer, 83, was arrested in a small property some 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Buenos Aires with six people described as his security team, Argentine police investigator Gustavo Toledo told AFP. Posted on 03/10/2005 9:45:23 PM PST by M. Espinola
A former German Nazi soldier turned Chilean sect leader was arrested on charges of pedophilia and suspicion of committing torture during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, police said.
Paul Schaefer, 83, was arrested in a small property some 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Buenos Aires with six people described as his security team, Argentine police investigator Gustavo Toledo told AFP.
Schaefer led an insular German sect in southern Chile called Colonia Dignidad, and had been hiding since a warrant for his arrest on multiple counts of pedophilia was issued in August 1996.
Schaefer was convicted of the charges in November 2004 along with 22 others from his enclave. Police said he carried no identification documents and refused to speak at the time of his arrest.
A former corporal and medic in the Nazi army, Schaefer fled Germany to Chile in 1961 to avoid child sexual abuse charges.
He established the self-subsistent Colonia Dignidad, also called Villa Baviera, populated with some 250 other German immigrants near the city of Parral, in the mountains some 350 kilometers (218 miles) south of Santiago.
Argentine television reporters mobbed Schaefer as an agent pushed the aged suspect on his wheelchair into a provincial police station. Officials said he could be transfered to Buenos Aires as early as Friday.
Schaefer appeared on television handcuffed and smiling, and holding a bottle of soda.
Argentine police said they had been following Schaefer's trail for six months.
Chilean officials want to interrogate Schaefer in an investigation into torture during the 1973-1990 Pinochet dictatorship.
Chilean investigators say that political prisoners -- including former leftist leader Alvaro Vallejos Villagran, arrested by Pinochet agents in May 1974 -- vanished after being sent to Colonia Dignidad.
Surrounded by barbed and electrified wire and protected by barricades, the community adhered to a strict discipline and remained cut off from the rest of Chilean life.
In 1996 a number of former residents testified that Schaefer systematically abused the colony's young children, many of whom were taken from the parents at birth.
Argentina may simply kick Schaefer out of the country as an alternative to Chile to ask for his extradition, which could tie the case up in courts with appeals.
Not too late to stretch his neck.
When he's gaping wide-eyed at his own intestines, justice will have been served.
Michael Jackson is in Argentina?!!
His neck??? HA! I can think of another part of this despicable POS's anatomy that I'd rather see stretched for miles with a rusty wire cutter straight from a bucket of dry ice. Then he'll get 5 minutes to figure out the Way to God's mercy seat before I pull the trigger. GRRRRRRR!
<><
A former Nazi...
a pedophile...
and a sect leader...
all 3 at the same time...
There is definately a Movie of the Week in there somewhere!
I think there's a fairly forgettable Charles Bronson flick that has a similar story line. Torture, Nazi, South America, and incest.
A corporal in the German army, not wanted for war crimes wouldn't normally qualify as a 'Nazi'. I suppose they're trying to make it sound more exciting.
Glad they got him though.
Why wouldn't this be titled Former German Corporal.....? Ignorance?
Secret cult breaks 43-year spell
This Nazi's capture is just the tip of a far reaching tail of pure evil.
You may have something there.
German Fugitive Arrested in Argentina Expected to Be Sent to Chile for Trial
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB8I0KV86E.html
Update.
Thanks for posting this update.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.