BUENOS AIRES, Dec 10 (Reuters) - A coast guard officer who stood trial on charges of torturing political prisoners in a secret prison during Argentina's 1976-1983 dirty war died on Monday four days before the trial verdict was to be read.

Hector Febres, 66, died in the military prison where he was being held. The verdict will now not be handed down.

"Apparently it was a natural death... the verdict will not be read. The criminal case will die with him," said a judicial source who asked not to be named. The source said the cause of death was not known and that there would be an autopsy.

Febres' trial on four torture charges began in October. It was the first trial in Argentina for crimes that took place in the most notorious clandestine prison from the dirty war, the Naval Mechanics School, or ESMA, in Buenos Aires.

The ESMA held thousands of political prisoners from 1976 to 1983 as the military government cracked down on leftists and dissidents. Many prisoners from the ESMA were drugged and dumped into the River Plate from the air.

Febres was among five Argentine officials sentenced earlier this year to life in prison in Italy, in absentia, for kidnapping and killing three Italian citizens in the early years of the dictatorship.

Febres was also accused in Argentina of stealing babies born to political prisoners and giving them up for illegal adoption.

Under the leftist government of President Nestor Kirchner, who handed power to his wife Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on Monday, Argentina has revived human rights trials against members of the security forces during the dictatorship.

This year three rights abusers, including a priest who worked with the military, have been convicted of crimes against humanity and given life sentences. (Reporting by Karina Grazina, Translating by Fiona Ortiz; editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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