Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Pinochet stripped of immunity

spanner | 26.08.2004 20:57 | Anti-militarism | Repression | World

General Augusto Pinochet has been stripped of his immunity from prosecution today by the Chilean Supreme Court.

General Pinochet
General Pinochet


Today's decision clears the way for a possible trial of the former dictator for human rights crimes.

The court voted 9-8 to lift the immunity which Pinochet granted himself just before he resigned his dictatorship in 1990. By doing this, he effectively granted himself a "get out of jail free card" for any crimes he committed during his dictatorship.

The new court ruling is a tremendous breakthrough for prosecutors who have tried since his resignation to bring him to justice. It reverses years of previous court rulings in his favour. Until now he was allowed to escape trial on the grounds of poor health. Doctors have previously testified that Pinochet has suffered from "mild dementia", and declared him too ill to stand trial.

When he was arrested in Britain in 1999 in response to an extradition request from Spain, Jack Straw set him free from house arrest, and allowed him to return home on the grounds of poor health, following an examination by British doctors. But according to a report by three distinguished Chilean psychiatrists published in May 2000, Pinochet was in fact healthy enough for trial. They said the British doctors' diagnosis was hasty, and marked by a "lack of scientific rigour".

Straw was later criticised for misleading the Commons about his decision not to extradite Pinochet to Spain:
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/pinochet/Story/0,11993,190632,00.html

Today's Supreme Court ruling was in response to a lawsuit by victims of “Operation Condor,” a US-backed repression plan implemented by Pinochet's military junta in the 1970s and ’80s. Pinochet took power in a coup in 1973 with the help of the US government, forcing out the democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende.

A report by the civilian government that succeeded Pinochet said that at least 3,197 people died or disappeared during Pinochet’s rule. The number may be much higher: investigations are still continuing.
 http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/pinochet.htm

If Pinochet is brought to trial, it could bring into the open the role played by the US in helping the General take power in a bloody coup, after which he tortured, killed and "disappeared" civilians to cement his position, with full US approval.
 http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/latin_america/chile.htm

In particular, Henry Kissinger has been found to have played a leading role in helping the coup. He has been indicted in Europe to testify on his role, but has so far managed to dodge court appearances on the matter.
 http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/kissinger-declass.htm

Pinochet’s lawyers have no comment at this time.

spanner

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. These are interesting times — sid

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech