after police found a firearm in his home in 2006 in violation of the terms of house arrest, he was transferred to the Marcos Paz prison. The 2006 trial In 2003, Congress repealed the 1986 "Pardon Laws" (Ley de Punto Final), and re-opened investigation and prosecution of crimes committed during the Dirty War. Human rights activists said that potentially hundreds of people could be brought to trial. Etchecolatz was the first official of that era to be prosecuted. Beginning in June 2006, he was tried for human rights abuses, in a case that drew international attention. On 19 September 2006, he was found guilty of the detention and torture of Jorge López and Nilda Eloy, and the homicides of Ambrosio Francisco De Marco, Patricia Graciela Dell'Orto, Diana Teruggi de Mariani, Elena Arce Sahores, Nora Livia Formiga and Margarita Delgado. In passing sentence, the tribunal said that Etchecolatz's crimes were "crimes against humanity in the context of the genocide that took place in Argentina". It was the first time that the term genocide was used in Argentine trials to characterize the crimes committed against political prisoners, and the court explained its reasoning.(See footnote quote in Lead) Together with Police Chief Ramón Camps, Etchecolatz is believed to have operated at least eight clandestine detention centres in La Plata, Quilmes, Banfield, and Martínez. More than 100 witnesses were called, including former president Raúl Alfonsín (1983–1989), under whose administration the Pardon Laws were passed in 1986. Etchecolatz criticized the procedures of the trial as biased and the judges as obedient to other powers. He said he was "an old man who is ill, with no money and no power", and "a part of a war that we [won] with the arms and that we're losing politically." He refused to acknowledge the authority of the judges, telling them "You are not the judge. The supreme judge awaits us after death. [...] It's not this tribunal that sentences me, it's you." The last thing he said before hearing the sentence was to claim he was "a prisoner of war" and "a political prisoner". Political intimidation Disappearance of Jorge Julio López Before Etchecolatz was sentenced, Jorge Julio López, who was among those illegally detained and who testified in the trial, was reported as missing and feared "disappeared". He was seen for the last time on 17 September 2006. The provincial government offered a 200,000 peso (US$ 64,000)