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Man charged with murder of SVT cameraman

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Man charged with murder of SVT cameraman

The man who has long been considered responsible for the 1973 murder of Leonardo Henrichsen, a cameraman on the SVT news programme Rapport, is now facing prosecution in Chile. The legal organisation Codepu submitted its application for the prosecution of junior officer Hector Hernan Bustamante Gomez on Wednesday.

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Henrichsen was murdered on 29th July 1973, while he was filming a military revolt against Chile's president Salvador Allende. He was in the Chilean capital, Santiago, along with Rapport reporter Jan Sandqvist, with the intention of making a report on the risk of a military coup and civil war.

But on the morning of the 29th, army vehicles surrounded the presidential palace. Leonardo Henrichsen was filming the rebels as they fired on a crowd. Suddenly a soldier turned towards him and shot him in the chest. But Henrichsen did not stop filming until the soldier rushed forward and took the camera from his hands.

He died before he arrived at the hospital.

Henrichsen, who was an Argentine citizen and had a Swedish father, had worked for Swedish television for four years.

Jan Sandvist said that he is happy that the man responsible for Henrichsen's death will at last face trial.

"We have worked for this for a long time," he said to Sydsvenskan.

"It's fantastic that there is finally a prosecution."

TT/The Local

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