By Mara D. Bellaby Associated Press Writer Wednesday, December 9, 1998; 12:37 p.m. EST
LONDON (AP) -- Britain rejected former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's plea to be set free, ruling today that Spain can start extradition proceedings on charges of genocide, torture and kidnapping by his security forces.
The decision means that the 83-year-old Pinochet, under armed guard at a mansion outside London, now faces months and possibly years of battles through British courts fighting extradition.
``I find an authority to proceed in respect of Senator Pinochet today. The Spanish request for his extradition will now be considered by the courts,'' Home Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement.
Pinochet's lawyers have said they may seek an urgent review before a judge, arguing that Straw would be wrong on legal points to let Spain have the general.
Straw had agonized over the decision since Britain's highest court, the House of Lords, said in a 3-2 ruling Nov. 25 that Pinochet has no immunity from arrest under English law.
Pinochet, a regular visitor to Britain, was arrested Oct. 16 on a Spanish warrant seeking his extradition on charges of genocide, kidnapping and torture during his 17-year rule. He overthrew an elected Marxist, Salvador Allende, in a 1973 coup.
A Chilean government report says 3,197 people were murdered or disappeared at the hands of Pinochet's secret police. Opponents say the number is far higher.
Chilean President Eduardo Frei had no immediate comment about Straw's decision, his spokesman said in Brazil, where the leader was attending a trade summit. Chilean officials have traveled to Britain and Spain to press for Pinochet's freedom.
Straw's decision delighted human rights groups, victims of the Pinochet years and most rank-and-file legislators in Britain's governing Labor Party.
In Santiago, Chile, a leader of a group of relatives of those missing under Pinochet's reign called the decision historic.
``It is not only important for us and our loved ones but for all of mankind,'' said Viviana Diaz, with tears welling in her eyes.
The decision dealt a new blow to Britain's already strained relations with Chile, which has waged a diplomatic battle for the general's release because of fears that renewed tensions between his supporters and opponents will threaten the country's new democracy.
``This is yet another expression of Britain's colonialism and punishment for a small country that is struggling to develop,'' said Hernan Briones, president of the Pinochet Foundation, a private organization of Pinochet followers in Chile.
The decision also opened the prospect of a long legal fight by an old man living -- and possibly dying -- under arrest in a foreign country.
Pinochet remained at a mansion at Wentworth, about 20 miles west of London. He was moved there Dec. 1 after the north London hospital where he spent more than a month said he did not need medical attention. The hospital said he had overstayed his welcome and demanded that he leave.
Pinochet, who arrived in September, was arrested in a central London hospital where he had undergone back surgery.
He immediately claimed immunity from arrest as a former head of state, and a three-judge panel of England's High Court unanimously found in his favor Oct. 28. It ruled that Britain's 1978 State Immunity Act was so sweeping that it gave all former heads of state immunity from arrest for anything done in office.
Overturning the decision, three judges in the House of Lords said that some crimes are heinous beyond immunity.
Pinochet's lawyers have complained that a judge who tipped the decision against him, South African-born Lord Justice Leonard Hoffmann, is the director of the fundraising arm of Amnesty International, the British-based human rights group.
But Amnesty International insists that neither Hoffmann nor his wife were involved in the group's long campaign to have Pinochet tried in court.
© Copyright 1998 The Associated Press
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