Wednesday 30 December 2009

Argentina: Herrera de Noble/DNA case

Since my first post about Ernestina Herrera de Noble in August, the story has moved on considerably, with confirmation of the right to forcibly obtain DNA samples (from personal belongings) from suspected disappeared children and a court ruling, just before Christmas, that the Clarin owner's adopted children must undergo DNA testing without further delay.

Accordingly, Marcela and Felipe turned up to give blood samples, and the international press has picked up on the story.

The legal wrangling continues. The Noble siblings went to the Legal Medical department for testing, not, as the law stipulates, the National Bank of Genetic Data. Plus, they are demanding that their DNA be compared against just two possible biological families, who initiated the legal proceedings, and not against all potential matches. The significance of both these moves is to attempt to prevent the Noble children becoming part of the national search to identify the disappeared children and limit the number of families that could be linked to them. The recent court order allowed them to use the forensics laboratory for the test, but this contradicts a recent law which states that all such testing must take place within the national genetic database. Naturally, the Grandmothers are loudly protesting this development.

Apparently, results of the tests will take around two weeks - although I don't know if they will be released to the media immediately.

Las muestras de sangre de la polemica (Pagina/12)
Los Noble Herrera "cumplen con la ley" (Critica Digital, source of image)
Argentina takes DNA sample to track missing kids (AP)
DNA tests as Argentina seeks children of 'disappeared' (BBC)
Search for missing children in Argentina involves prominent media mogul (Mercopress)

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