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Leighton case
On October 6, 1975, an assassination attempt in Rome, Italy, was carried out against Bernardo Leighton, a former Chilean Christian Democratic vice-president, then in exile. The assassination attempt seriously injured Bernardo Leighton, and his wife, Anita Fresno, leaving her permanently disabled.
Background
Leighton was one of the founding members of the Chilean Christian Democrat Party. In 1966, he entered the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva, becoming a vice-president. Leighton left Chile in December 1973, after the coup d'etat. In exile, he opposed the new regime of Pinochet, he had already been nominally open to Salvador Allende. In 1974, a year before the Leighton assassination attempt, General Prats, another Chilean exile, was murdered in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires.
Legal procedures
Avanguardia Nazionale
DINA
Chilean General Manuel Contreras, head of DINA, has been indicted in Italy in 1995 for ordering the Leighton murder. Part of the indictment was based on testimony from Michael Townley. However, the Italian government was unable to get Contreras extradited from Chile, where he had already been incarcerated for ordering the assassination on Orlando Letelier. The deputy director of DINA, Raul Iturriaga, was also sentenced.
See also
Operation Condor
Letelier case
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Leighton case
