Weekly Report - 25 November 2003

Argentina's supreme court is split down the middle over the validity of the `Alfonsí­n laws' that shielded officials of the military government of 1976-83 from criminal prosecution. This was admitted by Enrique Petracchi immediately after his election as president of the court on 17 November. These laws have been declared null and void by congress, but there are serious doubts about the constitutionality of that step. Hopes that the supreme court would settle the issue independently, as it ruled on a case already before it, have now suffered a setback.