A human rights activist whose disappearance prompted an intense government manhunt said Thursday he was released by his captors after being tied up and beaten, according to AP. «They hit me. It was a punch without warning,» said Juan Evaristo Puthod, a survivor of clandestine prisons where thousands of political dissidents were tortured and killed during Argentina's 1976-83 military dictatorship. «It brought back all my memory, of a moment that was very difficult for me, for the whole world. My only fear was that they would kill me,» Puthod told Radio 10 as he went from a hospital to a government office to file a police report about being seized. Puthod, who lost vision in one eye while being tortured years ago, has been an important witness in several human rights cases as Argentina's current government tries to hold former police and military figures accountable for their roles in the «Dirty War.» But in his initial statements, Puthod offered no details that might suggest a link between the two gunmen who kidnapped him Tuesday and people who could be affected by his testimony. He was freed just before midnight on Wednesday, according to the government's Telam news agency.
