Videos of Pope in court being questioned about military junta

On November 8, 2010, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio, today Pope Francis, made statements for nearly four hours as a witness in the public trial for crimes against humanity committed in the School of Naval Mechanics (ESMA). The judges of  Federal Court 5 Daniel Obligado, Germán Castelli and Ricardo Farias questioned Bergoglio in the presence of the parties to the trial: attorneys, prosecutors and defense.

Bergoglio's statement was videotaped and then transcribed and added to the file and quoted in the judgment in which the Court condemned the oppressors who tortured and killed in secret detention center run by the Navy. Clarín have obtained an exclusive copy of the statement video , which lasts three hours and fifty minutes. In the pictures taken by the  Archdiocese, you can see Bergoglio and the Court.

On that occasion Bergoglio was questioned about the kidnapping of the Jesuit priests Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics who were detained in ESMA and released. In that statement, questioned by Luis Zamora, former deputy attorney for the human rights organisation,  Bergoglio says he met separately  twice with the dictator Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera-Chief of the Navy, to intercede for the two Jesuit priests who had been arrested . Priests  Yorio and Jalics were released after five months of having suffered torture at ESMA.

Here, two fragments of video Bergoglio's statement before the court. In one, the then Cardinal tells how he learned of the disappearance of the two Jesuits and tough dialogue he had about them with the then Navy chief Emilio Massera, who in those days ruled over the life and death of Argentinians .

Last night, Clarín published today the words of Pope Francis in another passage, where he declared that asked Yorio and Jalics, before his abduction, to take precautions because of the criticism that was then being received from "some quarters" about the priests who did pastoral work in the slums. He cited the case of the murder of Father Carlos Mugica.

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The videos





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