BUENOS AIRES—Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla, on trial for the first time since the country's Supreme Court rescinded his amnesty, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal court for the murder of 31 political prisoners in 1976, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Mr. Videla ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1981 and presided over the so-called Dirty War in which at least 10,000 people suspected of working against the regime, and perhaps as many as 30,000, were "disappeared" and killed, according to historians and human-rights groups.

After the country returned to democracy, Mr. Videla was sentenced in a landmark 1985 trial to life in prison for abuses committed during his rule. He served five years before he and other figures from the dictatorship were pardoned by President Carlos Menem, who said he was trying to close the book on a divisive era in Argentine history. The Supreme Court struck down the pardons in 2007, paving the way for new cases to be brought against officials from the dictatorship.

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