[JURIST] Former Argentine general Luciano Benjamin Menendez [Project Disappeared profile] and seven others went on trial Tuesday for the alleged 1977 kidnapping, torture, and killing of four political dissidents during the country's "Dirty War" [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. The 80-year old Menendez, who commanded an army corps in the late 1970s, was originally taken into custody in 2005, when a judge ordered his arrest [JURIST report] in connection with a separate murder. AP has more.

It is estimated that between 20,000 and 30,000 people were forcibly kidnapped or "disappeared" during the Argentine government's campaign against suspected dissidents during the country's "Dirty War." In 2005, Argentina's Supreme Court struck down amnesty laws [JURIST report] adopted in the 1980s to protect potential defendants, prompting the government to reopen hundreds of human rights cases.