The trial of a former Argentinian dictator got underway on Monday (November 02) in a soccer stadium. The local courtroom was not big enough to house the giant trial.

Reynaldo Bignone, who took control of Argentina in 1982, faces prosecution for the illegal arrest, detention and torture of 56 people at the former clandestine detention center, Campo de Mayo. 81-year-old Bignone is currently living under preventative house arrest and is also being processed on various other charges for dictatorship-era crimes.

Seven other former officers are also standing trial for kidnappings committed during the seven-year dictatorship. These are former generals Santiago Omar Riveros, Eugenio Guanabens Perello and Fernando Exequiel Verplaetsen, three colonels-Jorge Osvaldo Garcia, Carlos Alberto Tepedino and Eduardo Alfredo Esposito and the former police officer German Montenegro.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Founding Line president, Taty Almeida, hopes the defendants will be condemned and serve out their sentences in a common jail instead of a military prison.

[Taty Almeida, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Founding Line]:

"We are demanding for legal justice to be served, as we demonstrated for over the years. We never wanted to take justice into our own hands. We want [them to be sent to a] normal jail and of course, forever. That is what we sincerely hope for."  

A government report says 11,000 people were kidnapped to be tortured or killed during the "Dirty War" crackdown. But human rights groups estimate the number to be closer to 30,000. The people that were never found were said to have "disappeared".

The trial is expected to last five months and involve some 130 witnesses.