Dirty War adoption couple jailed

An Argentine couple have been jailed for illegally adopting a baby girl born 30 years ago to parents who were kidnapped by the military government.

The case was brought by the adopted woman, Maria Eugenia Sampallo, whose real parents were among the 30,000 said to have been killed in the "Dirty War".

Osvaldo Rivas and Maria Cristina Gomez were convicted of falsifying documents and hiding their daughter's identity.

The pair were sentenced to eight and seven years in prison respectively.

A former army captain, Enrique Berthier, was found guilty of taking Ms Sampallo and giving her to the couple. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

'Not my parents'

The case at the federal criminal court in Buenos Aires represented the first time a child born of prisoners who disappeared during the Dirty War pressed charges against the adoptive parents.

Rivas and his wife have not commented publicly on the case

After the judgement, human rights groups outside the court expressed mixed emotions, saying they were pleased the three had been found guilty but that they were disappointed by the reduced sentences.

Ms Sampallo had called for her adoptive parents to be sentenced to 25 years in prison - the maximum allowed under Argentine law.

"They are not my parents - they are my kidnappers," she said.

Ms Sampallo learned in 2001, as a result of DNA tests, that she was the daughter of missing political prisoners Mirta Mabel Barragan and Leonardo Ruben Sampallo.