In 1986, Rodrigo Rojas, a 19-year-old politically engaged student and photographer, was burned alive during a Santiago street demonstration directed at General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Decades later the men culpable for his death are being brought to justice.

Rojas, along with a woman named Carmen Quintana who, though badly burned, survived, was part of a protesting group that was intercepted by an army patrol. Nearly thirty years after the deadly incident, Judge Mario Carroza has ordered the arrest of two former army officers and five former noncommissioned officers that were involved, reports the New York Times.

According to Quintana, who currently acts as a scientific attache at the Chilean embassy in Canada, members of the patrols beat her and Rojas then proceeded to douse them with gasoline before setting them on fire.

Rojas’ death sparked national protests as well as a song by the '80s folk-pop group The Dream Academy. The killing had political ramifications as well, straining relations between Chile and the Reagan administration at a time when the U.S. was starting to pressure the Latin American nation to move towards democratization.

In 2013 Chilean leader Michelle Bachelet called for a full investigation into the human rights abuses committed during Pinochet's rule. As reported by the New York Times, the decades old case was reopened two years ago when a human rights organization filed a criminal complaint on behalf of Rojas’s family.

All seven of the accused were taken into custody by Tuesday night.

Quintana, like Rojas, was 19 years old at the time of the attack and has found some solace in the arrests.

"The truth has come late, and I hope that justice comes too. I congratulate this former conscript for his bravery, and for finding the courage to tell the truth," she said, as reported by the BBC.

In a 1987 New York Times article, Quintana said that the burning she endured and the surgery she required afterwards had taken away 15 pounds of her flesh and muscle.