Chile: 3 retired military men get 10 years for Pinochet-era killings

A retired general and two former sergeants were fined and sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday for killing a leftist couple shortly after Chile's 1973 military coup. The Santiago Court of Appeals said in a communique that Gen. Fernando Polanco and Sgts. Luis Fernandez and Hector Vallejos, all retired, were ordered to pay $600,000 (€415,000) to the son of the slain couple, Ernesto Lejderman. Argentine primary school teacher Bernardo Lejderman and Maria Avalos, a Mexican citizen, came to Chile in 1971, attracted by their sympathy with Marxist President Salvador Allende.