Two people responsible for the worst prison massacre in Argentina have been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The events that took place in cellblock seven of Devoto Prison in Buenos Aires in 1978, during the dictatorship, and which resulted in 65 deaths and more than 80 serious injuries among the inmates, are considered by a court to be a serious violation of human rights. A search in cellblock seven of Devoto Prison in Buenos Aires, during the Argentine military dictatorship, provoked a violent crackdown and a fire on March 14, 1978. The toll was 65 prisoners dead and more than 80 seriously injured. It was the largest documented massacre in the national prison system. Forty-seven years after the event known for decades as the "mattress riot," the courts determined that it was a "serious violation of human rights" and sentenced two former prison officials for their responsibility in the massacre at Pavilion Seven. Federal Oral Court No. 5, in its ruling, acquitted Gregorio Bernardo Zerda, former head of the Internal Security Division, and convicted Juan Carlos Ruiz, former director of the Devoto Detention Institute, and Horacio Martín Galíndez, also a former head of the Internal Security Division. Both were sentenced to 25 years in prison for the continuous mistreatment of 88 individuals and torture that resulted in death in 65 cases. The court deemed the crime imprescriptible, considering it a "serious violation of human rights." The prosecutor in the case, Abel Córdoba, and the lawyers Claudia Cesaroni, Natalia D'Alessandro, and Denise Feldman—who make up the plaintiffs—requested that the crime be considered a crime against humanity and that the three defendants be sentenced to 22 to 25 years in prison. During his closing arguments, Córdoba stated that the defendants "demonstrated disdain for the human dignity of the victims," ​​whom they "destroyed as if they were garbage."