Buenos Aires - A former Argentine navy officer, Capt Jorge "Tiger" Acosta, denied any "systematic" military plan to steal babies for adoption during the 1976-83 dictatorship in a video confession taped before he turned himself in on Tuesday.
"It is not possible that the Argentine armed forces developed a massive, systematic campaign to steal babies," Capt Acosta said in the video shown on television.
"It's probable there could have been thieves and rapists, because we [the forces] form a part of Argentine society, and so do they."
After democracy returned to Argentina, Capt Acosta avoided jail for his Dirty War crimes thanks to the Due Obedience law of 1987, which ruled that only top officers could be tried.
So far nine military men have been summoned, questioned or put under house arrest over the baby thefts, among them the 1976 coup leaders, Gen Jorge Videla and Admiral Emilio Massera. Federal Judge Adolfo Bagnasco is investigating if the thefts were a planned practice under senior officers' orders.