[JURIST] A Chilean appeals court on Saturday upheld the convictions of two men for the killing of two Americans in 1973. The Appeals Court of Santiago affirmed [AP report] the seven-year sentence of General Pedro Espinoza Bravo and the two-year sentence of Rafael Gonzalez Berdugo. The men were charged after the murders of documentary filmmaker Charles Horman and journalist Frank Teruggi, who were 31 and 24 years old, respectively. Bravo, a retired brigadier general, was convicted as the mastermind behind the killings, while Berdugo, a retired civilian air force employee, was given a lesser sentence for his complicity in Horman’s death. Both men are already serving time in prison for other crimes. The court also reduced the compensation that Chile must pay the victims’ families from USD $30,000 to approximately $20,000. The decision is being appealed to the Chilean Supreme Court.

The murders of the two Americans were served as the inspiration for the Oscar-winning film Missing [IMDb website]. In July 2014 a Chilean court ruled [JURIST report] that US military intelligence services provided information that led to the arrests, and eventual executions of the two Americans. According to the ruling former US Navy Captain Ray Davis gave information to the Chilean officials that was used in the arrest of Horman and Teruggi. Davis was indicted [JURIST report] in 2011 for the murder of Horman and Teruggi. Both crimes were alleged to have been committed during the 1973-1990 regime of General Augusto Pinochet [BBC obituary]. Davis served as a commander of a US military mission in Chile in 1973 when a coup [BBC backgrounder] ensued that resulted in the ousting of former socialist president Salvador Allende [BBC profile] and the seizure of power by Pinochet.