Timerman, Jacobo

Timerman, Jacobo,

1923–99, Argentine journalist, b. Ukraine. Founder (1971) of the liberal Argentine newspaper La Opinión, he focused attention on the desaparecidos, people who disappeared without a trace during the brutal military regime in Argentina (1976–82). In 1977 he was arrested. Tortured, and held until 1979—first clandestinely, then in a regular prison and under house arrest—despite being cleared by the judiciary of charges brought against him, he was exiled and stripped of his citizenship. One of the few to have survived the experience, he wrote a best-selling book, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number (1981), describing his ordeal. He returned to Argentina after democracy was restored in 1983 and won compensation from the government and testified (1986) against his torturers.