Spanish police arrest Argentine ex-president Peron

MADRID, Jan 13 (Reuters) Spanish police arrested former Argentine President Isabel Peron, wanted in her home country for a judicial investigation into dissident killings before the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, police sources said.

Peron, whose full name is Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, was arrested at her home in Villanueva de la Canada, a town in the province of Madrid, the sources said yesterday.

She was being taken by police to the High Court.

A judge wants to question Peron in a case involving the 1976 disappearance of a man who rights groups say was last seen being taken into custody by state security agents.

A Madrid judge will read her the charges and proceedings for her extradition to Argentina will start, although they could take up to around one month, a judicial source said.

Peron, the third wife of former President Juan Domingo Peron, is accused of signing three decrees that facilitated acts of state terrorism during her 1974-1976 rule.

Now in her 70s, Peron succeeded her husband as president after his death but struggled to hold onto power as political violence accelerated. In March 1976, she was ousted in a coup.

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