An Argentinian court Thursday found two former dictators guilty of stealing dozens of babies during the country 's dirty war . Jorge Rafael Videla , who ruled as a dictator between 1976 to 1981 , was sentenced to 50 years in prison . Gen. Reynaldo Benito Bignone , who ruled the country from June 1982 until the nation 's return to democracy in December 1983 , was sentenced to 15 years in prison . They were the two most high-profile defendants found guilty Thursday of systematically stealing babies from political prisoners and giving them new identities . Baby-stealing trial in Argentina . `` It was the worst , the most perverse of the dictatorship , I think , what they did with us , '' said Francisco Madariaga Quintela , 35 , one of the stolen babies who was reunited with his father in 2010 . `` It was a torture prolonged through time , for the grandmothers searching , for family members , everyone . '' Observers packed the courtroom Thursday and cheered when a judge read the verdict for Videla . Afterward , outside the courthouse , family members of the disappeared told CNN affiliate Canal 7 that they were satisfied with the verdict . `` It was what we were asking for . We never asked for revenge . We never hated . We never asked for anything more than justice , and we have been fighting for 36 years , '' one father said . The dictators and their officers were on trial for being the `` presumed authors of the crimes of theft , retention and hiding of minors , as well as replacing their identities , '' according to a statement from the country 's judiciary . Specifically , they were tried for the stealing of 34 babies from their parents , the court said . During the trial , Videla said children may have been kidnapped , but he said that there was no order or systematic plan . Videla , who was among the coup leaders who overthrew then-President Isabel Martinez de Peron in March 1976 , was previously convicted in 2010 of human rights abuses during his rule and is currently serving a life sentence in prison . Former dictator sentenced to life . Bignone was sentenced in 2009 to 25 years in prison for kidnapping and torturing 56 people . The accusations stem from the country 's `` Dirty War '' from 1976 to 1983 . During those years of military dictatorship , up to 30,000 students , labor leaders , intellectuals and leftists disappeared or were held in secret jails and torture centers . Mariana Zaffaroni Islas , who was reunited with her family in 1993 , told Argentina 's state-run Telam news agency that the verdict was significant for all Argentinians . `` For any citizen who lives in a country where actions like this do not remain unpunished with the passage of time , it represents a guarantee that justice is done , '' she said .
The crimes were `` the most perverse of the dictatorship , '' one victim says . Court : Jorge Rafael Videla and Reynaldo Benito Bignone are guilty of baby thefts . They have been sentenced to life in prison. They were both one-time dictators of Argentina .