Emboldened by Lagos's win, people in Chile are preparing for the opportunity to try Pinochet if he is not extradited to Spain. The different laws of different countries are relevant in terms of the health grounds on which a person may be exempt from trial. Chilean law is less generous. Perhaps he had better stay in his gilded cage in London. Why is a plane flying in to help him back?
[Perhaps there should be a retirement home on St Helena for people like him, Kohl, Yeltsin, Milosevic, Karadic ... (too late for Arkan).]
Interestingly Pinochet long resisted his lawyers trying to get him off on health grounds. Now he has to suffer the humiliation of speculation that he is either demented or lying.
His victims did not get such careful medical assessments before the torture was allowed to proceed. Lucky man.
Chris Burford
London
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>From Guardian breaking news last night:-
Mr Straw has given no indication of when he will make his decision, which could then be subject to a raft of legal challenges.
Amnesty International, the Redress Trust, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture and the Relatives of the Disappeared in Chile warned they had grave reservations about the secret medical reports.
The groups submitted independent expert medical opinion highlighting what they said were deficiencies in the examination.
Dr Robert Howard, of the Institute of Psychiatry, and Dr Nori Graham, president of the International Alzheimer's Society, said tests needed to be carried out over a minimum of several weeks to diagnose dementia.
Medical observation over a period of days was vital to ensure the patient had not taken drugs, been coached, deprived of sleep, or affected in any other way to influence the outcome of tests, they added.
A Chilean air force plane, which will be hoping to return the senator home, is due to land at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Wednesday.