The Federal Oral Court (TOF) 1 of Salta sentenced this Thursday the former owner of the passenger transport company La Veloz del Norte, Marcos Levin, to 18 years in prison, considering him responsible for the kidnapping and torture of 17 employees. of that firm, in January 1977, during the last military dictatorship, while two other defendants were sentenced to 16 years in prison. "Actually now we do believe that justice is there. We must not give up, I have been fighting for more than 40 years and they have not been able to silence me," Víctor Manuel Cobos told Télam, after learning of the ruling in the trial known as La Veloz del Norte II, and added: "despite the death threats I received, we have managed to gather all the necessary evidence and reach this conclusion." Cobos, who was accompanied by representatives of different human rights defense movements, expressed that "the majority of the victims of this trial have already died, but God gave me the possibility of staying alive to move forward and achieve this, which is a great triumph for all of us who have been tortured in that disastrous time, which was the de facto government." The TOF 1 of Salta resolved to declare the events judged as crimes against humanity and sentence Levin to 18 years in prison for being a co-author of illegal deprivation of liberty aggravated by mediating violence and threats, and imposition of torture aggravated by being victims persecuted politically, to the detriment of 16 victims. He also sentenced Víctor Hugo Almirón, former head of the Fourth Police Station of Salta, to 16 years in prison and disqualification as a necessary participant in the crimes of illegal deprivation of liberty, committed with functional abuse, aggravated by mediating violence. and threats, and imposition of torments aggravated by the victims being politically persecuted. At the same time, the judges sentenced the former chief of staff of La Veloz del Norte, José Antonio Grueso, to 16 years in prison for being a necessary participant in the crime of illegal deprivation of liberty aggravated by mediating violence and threats and for his duration of more than a month, to the detriment of Cobos. This, in real competition with illegal deprivation of liberty aggravated by having been committed by violence and threats, to the detriment of the other 16 victims, in real competition with aggravated imposition of torture. The ruling was by majority, with the partial dissent of one of the judges regarding the degree of participation in the events and the amount of the penalty imposed.