Ex-soldiers convicted of killing Chilean singer Victor Jara

SANTIAGO, Chile – A Chilean judge has sentenced eight retired military officers to 18 years in prison for the kidnapping and murder of folk singer Victor Jara and a government official at the start of the country’s military dictatorship.

The office of the court system says a ninth veteran was sentenced to five years for coverup.

The Marxist folk singer was seized in the hours after Gen. Augusto Pinochet overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973. He was taken the country’s main soccer stadium where he was tortured and killed.

Allende’s prisons chief Littre Quiroga also was killed.

The ruling announced Tuesday can be appealed.

More than 3,000 people were slain during the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and most of those crimes remain unsolved.