Duncan Campbell Saturday May 29, 2004 The Guardian
A Chilean court has stripped General Augusto Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution, opening up once more the possibility of his being tried for his part in the human rights abuses that followed his military coup in 1973.
The appeals court in Santiago voted by 14 to 9 to remove immunity from the man who led the military dictatorship that replaced President Salvador Allende and remained in power until 1990.
Lawyers for the 88-year-old general may appeal to the supreme court, arguing that he is neither mentally nor physically well enough to stand trial.
A medical report in 2000, after he was sent back to Chile from custody in Britain, suggested that he suffered from a mild form of dementia. He has a pacemaker, has had three mild strokes in five years and suffers from diabetes and arthritis.
Gen Pinochet is being sued in connection with the deaths of political opponents in Operation Condor, the plan by Latin American military dictatorships to stamp out opposition. He is accused of knowing what was happening, despite his later claims that the offences were committed by junior ranks.
Gen Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998 after a Spanish investigating magistrate, Baltasar Garzón, requested his extradition to face charges of torturing Spanish citizens during the coup.
He spent 17 months under house arrest before extradition proceedings were halted on the strength of a controversial medical report which found that the former dictator had suffered extensive brain damage as a result of a series of strokes.
Gen Pinochet returned to Chile, where further charges were also dropped on the grounds of illness.
According to the Associated Press, the prosecution lawyer Francisco Bravo said of yesterday's decision: "We receive this with deep surprise but also with deep pride. We stress that what was at stake today was not Pinochet's health, but the principle of equality before the law _
"This ruling makes the relatives of the victims and the whole Chilean society again trust Chile's justice."
Lorena Pizarro, head of a group of relatives of victims, said: "We are happy now, but we remain alert because the next step must be for the dictator to go to jail and pay for all the crimes for which he is responsible."
Gen Pinochet did not appear in court for the latest hearing. His family has argued that he is too sick to stand trial. Last year his son Marco Antonio told the Guardian: "What I want is for the country to forgive, but not forget ...
"You have to think that in 17 years a government has bad things, like the human rights violations, but you have many other good things."
Of the disappearances and torture, he said: "I think there were excesses ... the security forces had too much independence, so when they had to react against the terrorists, they had to react with excess."
Of his father's health, he said: "He has not lost his reason. He has problems with his memory. He can remember things that happened 50 years ago, but not what happened two years ago. It is like a jigsaw puzzle."
Sofia Prats, the daughter of General Carlos Prats, who remained loyal to President Salvador Allende and was assassinated with his wife in Buenos Aires after the coup, supposedly on Gen Pinochet's orders, told the Guardian last year: "The most we want is that people know who were the criminals, and know the truth."
Larry Birns, of the New York-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, welcomed the court's decision. "It's incredibly important that total sunlight is shone on what happened," he said.
Many of Gen Pinochet's opponents believe that a trial may never take place. However, the fact that he was held in Britain for so long and has subsequently had to face frequent court accusations has significantly weakened his standing and influence in Chile.