An Argentinian court has sentenced a police chief and an officer to life in prison for the killings of two protesters during civic unrest over the country's economic crisis in 2002.
After a seven-month trial, the court found police chief Alfredo Fanchiotti and officer Alejandro Acosta guilty of homicide in a police crackdown on militant unemployed marchers on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
News videotape and photographs helped identify the two men at the scene of the killings. One of the young victims was shot on the street, the other in the subway station.
Six other police officers received sentences of 10 months to four years in prison for covering up the killings.
The highly organised groups of unemployed, known as " piqueteros", celebrated the convictions outside the court and called for indictments of the government leaders in power at the time.
The killings came six months after President Fernando de la Rua quit as dozens of people died in rioting prompted by the economy's collapse and a freeze on bank deposits.
Fearing more violence, caretaker President Eduardo Duhalde moved to dispel tensions by moving up elections by six months to April 2003.
The election was won by Patagonian governor Nestor Kirchner, who has cemented the economic recovery with three straight years of 9 per cent growth.