Mario Sandoval

Mario Sandoval is a former policeman, from Argentina, who fled to France to avoid the repercussions of the restoration of Argentinian democracy.^[1]

Sandoval's service as a police officer overlapped with Argentina's "Dirty War".^[1]

Argentina's security officials routinely secretly kidnapped suspects, rather than openly arresting them. These individuals were colloquially known as desaparecidos "the disappeared", as no one knew what had happened to them. These individuals were never formally charged, never tried, never acquitted, or convicted, or sentenced. However security officials routinely secretly executed them.

Sandoval was convicted for playing a role in the kidnapping and murder of a student in 1976, named Hernán Abriata.^[1] He received a 15 year sentence.^[2]

The Buenos Aires Herald reported that Sandoval refused to help Abriata's loved one learn his exact fate.^[2] They reported Sandoval requested the court try him for genocide, not murder.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 Vanessa Buschschlüter (2022-12-22). "Mario Sandoval: Notorious Argentine torturer jailed". BBC News. Retrieved 2025-12-02. Argentine former police officer Mario Sandoval attends the beginning of his trial over the disappearance of a student at the federal courts in Buenos Aires, on September 14, 2022.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Lucía Cholakian Herrera (2022-12-22). "Dictatorship torturer found teaching at Sorbonne sentenced to 15 years". Buenos Aires Herald. Retrieved 2025-12-02. Aged 24 at the time, Abriata was an architecture student and a member of Peronist University Youth at the University of Buenos Aires. A message from him was discovered on the wall of the attic where he was held during the conservation process of the building in 2017. “H.A. [for his initials] Mónica te amo” (“Mónica, I love you”). But, to the day, the fate of Abriata after being kept in ESMA remains unknown.

[Bbc2022-12-22-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 Vanessa Buschschlüter (2022-12-22). "Mario Sandoval: Notorious Argentine torturer jailed". BBC News. Retrieved 2025-12-02. Argentine former police officer Mario Sandoval attends the beginning of his trial over the disappearance of a student at the federal courts in Buenos Aires, on September 14, 2022.

[buenosairesherald2022-12-22-2] 2.0 ^2.1 Lucía Cholakian Herrera (2022-12-22). "Dictatorship torturer found teaching at Sorbonne sentenced to 15 years". Buenos Aires Herald. Retrieved 2025-12-02. Aged 24 at the time, Abriata was an architecture student and a member of Peronist University Youth at the University of Buenos Aires. A message from him was discovered on the wall of the attic where he was held during the conservation process of the building in 2017. “H.A. [for his initials] Mónica te amo” (“Mónica, I love you”). But, to the day, the fate of Abriata after being kept in ESMA remains unknown.

[1]

[2]