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Chilean court strips Pinochet's immunity


Santiago / AFP
07/08/2005

Chas Gerretsen, Nederlands fotomuseum
General Pinochet, 1973.
The Santiago Appeals Court on Wednesday stripped ailing ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet of his immunity in a case involving political prisoners killed during his iron-fisted rule, the court said.

The full court ruled 11 to 10 to strip Pinochet 's immunity as an ex-head of state in the case, which alleges his involvement in the abduction and killing of political prisoners during what his intelligence services dubbed "Operation Colombo."

Pinochet , now 89, seized power in a 1973 coup, which toppled elected socialist president Salvador Allende. He ruled until 1990.

Last month, a Chilean court lifted Pinochet ' s immunity from prosecution for fraud but said he should not stand trial on human rights charges for his role in a conspiracy of South American dictatorships. Immunity is addressed on a legal case-by-case basis in Chile.

Operation Colombo became public in 1975, when Pinochet 's regime announced that the bodies of 119 members of the Leftist Revolutionary Movement (MIR) had been found in Argentina and Brazil , killed in a dispute among members of the guerrilla organization.

The retired general, a symbol of Cold War repression who drove a deep political rift through this Andean nation, has never been tried in connection with the estimated 3,000 people who were killed or disappeared under his regime.
Chile 's internal tax service filed corruption charges against Pinochet after a US Senate probe uncovered accounts Pinochet opened in US banks under assumed names, holding millions of dollars.

Pinochet had secret holdings in cash, stocks and bonds in the United States , allowing him to control at least 13 million dollars, the US Senate reported in March.
A commission investigating torture of political prisoners during Pinochet 's military dictatorship delivered a report including the cases of 87 children aged 12 and younger, some of whom were tortured, President Ricardo Lagos announced last month.

Most of the children had been jailed with their parents, and some of them reported having been tortured, according to the report. Their identities were to have been kept secret for another 50 years.
The commission delivered a preliminary report in November, after the testimony of 28,000 prisoners who said they had been tortured. The commission left out 7,000 more cases for which it said there was insufficient evidence.

Pinochet was taken to the hospital Monday for a new battery of medical tests. It was his third hospital visit since fainting at his coastal home west of Santiago in May. He also suffered a stroke last month.