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COLONIA
DIGNIDAD LEADER SENTENCED
(August 29, 2006) Paul
Schaefer, the former leader of the German cult-colony Colonia
Dignidad, was sentenced Monday to seven years in jail for his
involvement with a cache of arms found in 2005.
Judge Jorge
Zepeda also sentenced Schaefer aides Kart Van den Berg and Kurt
Schnellenkamp to five years in prison in the 75-page
ruling.
Zepeda requested the extradition of another former
aide, Albert Schreiber, who currently resides in Germany.
The sentence is the first one issued by Zepeda since he took
charge in 2005 of all crimes committed at the colony. Schaffer had
previously been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the various
sexual crimes he committed while leading the colony.
Police
found the weapons collection buried in the former cult-colony in
June of last year (ST, June 17, 2005), including 85 submachine guns,
60 hand grenades, 14 FAL rifles, 18 antipersonnel mines, 18 cluster
grenades, rocket launchers, telescopic sights and large amounts of
ammunition. Sources involved in the discovery said mortar bombs and
a land-to-air missile were also found.
The government said
the weapons confirmed the colony’s “complicity in paramilitary
operations” during the military dictatorship.
Sources at the
dig also say that files containing information on leftist dissidents
during the military dictatorship were found among the
weapons.
After the 1973 coup in which Augusto Pinochet took
power, the colonists began to forge links with the military and,
according to a government report, Colonia Dignidad became a
“detention and torture center” used by the DINA and the CNI secret
police forces. Once democracy was restored to Chile, investigation
into Schaefer’s activities began, forcing him to leave the country.
Schaefer was apprehended in Buenos Aires (ST, March 11,
2005) and then deported to Chile. He is believed to have sexually
abused as many as 10,000 young children over a 40-year period. He
was also allegedly involved in numerous human rights violations,
including torture and forced disappearances.
The colony is
accused of the disappearance of Russian-born U.S. citizen Boris
Weisfeiler. He was last seen Jan. 4, 1985, camping near the
boundaries of the German colony. New information found last week
shed further light on this disappearance (ST, August 17).
In
July, a former Colonia Dignidad member provided evidence that
political prisoners had been disappeared and then chemically burned
at the compound (ST, July 25).
SOURCE: EL MERCURIO
By
Nathan Crooks (editor@santiagotimes.cl)
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