MADRID, Spain (AP) - A Spanish judge is seeking to question former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in London about crimes committed during the military dictatorships that ruled several South American countries in the 1970s and 1980s.
Judge Baltasar Garzon, who has been investigating former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (news - web sites)'s human rights abuses in Chile, has filed a request with British authorities to allow him to question Kissinger when the American arrives to attend a convention, Juan Garces, a lawyer involved in the Pinochet investigation, said Wednesday.
Garzon, a National Court investigative magistrate, is known for his pursuit of drug traffickers and terrorists in Spain and abroad.
He attracted international attention when he ordered the arrest in London of Pinochet in 1998, kicking off an ultimately unsuccessful bid to have him extradited to Spain for trial on charges of human rights violations.
Kissinger is expected to attend a convention of the Institute of Directors on April 24 at Royal Albert Hall in London. The group's members are directors of companies.
Kissinger served as Richard Nixon's assistant for national security from 1969-1973 and secretary of state between 1973-77 for Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford.
Garces said Garzon's petition was sent Tuesday and is based on the European Convention on Terrorism, which requires signatories to cooperate with each others' judicial processes relating to terrorism.
The Spanish judge is investigating accusations against Pinochet of genocide and international terrorism. He is also probing the disappearance of hundreds of Spanish citizens in Argentina during the military rule between 1976-83.
Garces said Garzon wants to question Kissinger over his alleged involvement in "Operation Condor," a concerted plot by former military dictatorships in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay to persecute and eliminate their opponents during the 1970s and 1980s.
Judges in at least two other countries, Argentina and Chile, also want to question Kissinger about his links with their countries' past dictatorships.