Chilean court upholds conviction in 1973 killing of two Americans

MIAMI - FEBRUARY 02: A judges gavel rests on top of a desk in the courtroom of the newly opened Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum February 3, 2009 in Miami, Florida. The museum is located in the only known structure in the nation that was designed, devoted to and operated as a separate station house and municipal court for African-Americans. In September 1944, the first black patrolmen were sworn in as emergency policemen to enforce the law in what was then called the "Central Negro District." The precinct building opened in May 1950 to provide a station house for the black policemen and a courtroom for black judges in which to adjudicate black defendants. The building operated from 1950 until its closing in 1963. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (2009 Getty Images)

A Chilean appeals court has upheld the conviction of a retired brigadier general and a former civilian air force employee in the killing of two Americans shortly after the 1973 military coup that overthrew democratically elected President Salvador Allende.

The Appeals Court of Santiago on Saturday confirmed the 7-year sentence given to retired Gen. Pedro Espinoza Bravo as the mastermind in the killings of documentary filmmaker Charles Horman, 31, and journalist Frank Teruggi, 24. The court also ratified the 2-year sentence for retired civilian air force employee Rafael Gonzalez Berdugo for his complicity in Horman's death.

The Americans' deaths were the subject of the 1982 film "Missing" by Constantin Costa-Garvas, with Jack Lemmon playing Horman's father.

Espinoza Bravo and Gonzalez Berdugo are currently behind bars in other criminal cases.

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