The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith today welcomed reports from Asuncion, Paraguay, that human rights leader Damingo Laino has been released from jail. Rabbi Morton M. Rosenthal, director of ADL’s Latin American affairs department, expressed gratification that the case against Laino, a former member of the Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies and vice-president of an opposition political party, had been dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence.
Laino was released Aug. 7,10 days after ADL had publicly expressed fear for Laino’s safety after he was arrested last month. The arrest occurred one day after Laino returned from a six-week visit to the United States during which he had openly criticized the dictatorial regime of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner for its hospitality to Nazi war criminals and violations of human rights.
Rosenthal said that Laino, when he was a deputy, had proposed a bill calling for the investigation of Nazi influence in Paraguay and the revocation of citizenship granted to Joseph Mengele, the most wanted of Nazi war criminals.
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