The murder took place in 1974 and the prosecuted will be sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison. Chialanza is a retired lieutenant, while Dalmao is still the head of the 6th Army Division, and the first military to be prosecuted for crimes committed during the dictatorship in Uruguay, which took place from 1973 to 1985.

The ruling came amid a longstanding national debate, about the need to repeal the Impunity Law, declared twice unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Justice and condemned by international agencies.

The case of Sabalsagaray, a 24 year-old Literature professor who was killed by torture, was excluded from the Impunity Law in 2005, but after three years the Judiciary ended up dismissing the report.

Prosecutor Mirtha Guianze filed for the unconstitutionality of the law before the Supreme Court of Justice, which ruled in favor in October of 2009. This gave way to the later call for the prosecution of the two military men.

In this long process it was possible to prove that Sabalsagaray died during the illegal mistreatment, thus refuting all the theories of the military courts, which explained her death as suicide.

On Tuesday November 9th, at noon, the Army Commander in Chief, Jorge Rosales, who confirmed he believed in Dalmao’s innocence- was still meeting with high ranking military to brief them about the judicial process, which has upset the military.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/silvina27/