Uruguay's ex-ruler Alvarez jailed

Gregorio Alvarez was arrested in 2007

The former military ruler of Uruguay, Gregorio Alvarez, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder and human rights violations.

A court in Montevideo found him guilty of 37 homicides during his time as head of the army in the 1970s and later as president in 1981-85.

He was arrested in 2007 on charges of kidnapping political activists living in exile in Argentina.

Alvarez, now aged 82, was not in court because he was ill, his lawyer said.

Hundreds of people disappeared during Uruguay's repressive military rule that finally ended in 1985.