Argentina's ex-President Reynaldo Bignone is on trial for torture and mass murder

The trial of former President of Argentina Reynaldo Bignone has begun in Argentina, according to the BBC.

Also on trial are five of his former army officers, including intelligence chief General Santiago Omar Riveros, and a Buenos Aires police commissione.

The seven are accused of the kidnapping,torture and murder of 56 people, committed in the Campo de Mayo dentention centre between 1976 and 1978, according to Momento24

Reynaldo Bignone was the last military ruler of Argentina, ending a long line of brutal dictators that began in March 1976 when the military junta first seized power.

Human rights groups estimate that 30,000 people died or went missing during purges of junta opponents between 1976 and 1983.

He had been under house arrest before the trial.

The case has taken six years to reach court and the ruling will be announced sometime in February 2010.

Taty Almeida, a member of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, an association of Argentine mothers whose children went "missing" during the junta's rule, told Al Jazeera: "When I see them there I feel repulsed but I also feel a great deal of achievement because they're being put on trial."

Amnesty laws prevented former junta officers from facing trial for human rights abuses until they were struck down in 2005 by Argentina's Supreme Court, during the rule of President Nestor Kirchner.