Part III
The judiciary during the Repression

Nunca Más (Never Again) - Report of Conadep  - 1984
 

Disappearance of dr. Abdala Auad - File N° 1089

In February 1977 Dr Auad was employed as the legal representative for the minority shareholders at the New Bank of Santiago del Estero. He uncovered a huge swindle against his employers. It became public knowledge through various press reports until his abduction and disappearance on 18 March 1977.

On that day he left home to go to the Bank of the Province of Santiago del Estero. He did not arrive, however, because in front of 450 Calle Buenos Aires he was intercepted by three people in a car.

His family immediately filed a writ of habeas corpus and reported the abduction to the Federal Court. They also asked for meetings with high-level people in the government like Generals Videla and Harguindeguy, and asked members of the Church and the Syrian Embassy to intervene. They finally went to various human rights organizations and sent the facts of the case to the United Nations. None of these measures brought any positive results.

After the return of constitutional government, Roberto Manuel Zamudio went to the Provincial Commission for Human Rights Violations and stated that on 3 June 1978 he was kidnapped and taken to a secret torture and prison centre, which he recognized thanks to judicial intervention in 1984. He was tied to a bed-frame and tortured. At one point Zamudio had a serious problem in his respiratory tract from fumes given off by a lighted brazier during which he heard one of the guards say to another: 'That's almost the same as what happened to you with Dr Abdala Auad.' This made him think that Auad had been in this same place during his imprisonment.

The deposition of these facts was filed with the judge in Criminal Court No. 4 in Santiago del Estero.