Augusto Pinochet will stand trial for atrocities from his 17-year regime in Chile, a Santiago court ruled unanimously on Monday, as the 89-year-old former dictator recovered in a hospital from a stroke.
The appeals court rejected Pinochet’s motion to drop the murder and kidnapping charges for crimes committed during Operation Condor, a conspiracy of 1970s South American dictatorships to track down and kill opponents and spirit their bodies to each other’s countries.
”By unanimity, the appeal has been rejected,” court President Juan Escobar said.
Two dozen Pinochet supporters held a protest outside the appeals court, while dozens of families of dictatorship-era victims stood nearby and applauded when the decision was announced.
Pinochet has never stood trial for any of the approximately 3 000 political opponents killed during the dictatorship, according to an official toll. He took power after elected Socialist president Salvador Allende was toppled in a military coup on September 11 1973, and ruled until 1990.
Attorneys for Pinochet immediately appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court. In July 2002, the high court found that Pinochet had suffered from mild dementia and was unable to stand trial.
Then, as now, critics denounced Pinochet’s hospitalisation as a ploy to escape justice. His supporters say the ageing former general is legitimately ill and suffered a stroke on Saturday.
”Now we can hope that Pinochet will finally be ordered held under house arrest, whether it be at the hospital or elsewhere,” said a leader of the victims’ relatives, Lorena Pizarro.
Investigative Judge Guzman Tapia last week ordered the house arrest of the ex-strongman for alleged murder of a dissident and the disappearances from custody of nine others, who are assumed to have been murdered.
Hospital officials said Pinochet will not be discharged on Monday because he will undergo more tests.
”It is likely that there will be after-effects,” Santiago Military hospital director Lionel Gomez said, adding that his health could deteriorate.
Pinochet has a pacemaker and suffers from other illnesses, including diabetes, bronchitis and osteoarthritis.
Pinochet had lost consciousness and mobility for 15 minutes after suffering the stroke, but doctors on Sunday said he was no longer in critical condition and regained consciousness and his mobility.
”The worst has passed,” said Pinochet’s oldest daughter, Lucia Pinochet Hiriart, after visiting her father on Monday. ”He was very ill, but thank God he is doing better.”
She rejected accusations that her father’s illness was a manoeuvre to avoid prosecution.
”[The accusations] are foolish,” Pinochet Hiriart said. ”They make no sense.”
Human rights attorneys said Pinochet had ”faked” being gravely ill once before, when he was released from house arrest in London in 2000 due to his health, 503 days after being detained on a Spanish extradition request.
”This manoeuvre is old and fools no one,” the attorneys said in a statement.
The attorneys representing victims’ relatives said Pinochet can stand trial.
”He can have all the ills of a man of his age, but he has all the conditions to handle legal proceedings,” said attorney Eduardo Contreras, who called Pinochet’s illnesses a ”bluff”.
”And we are sure that he will also be able to handle his conviction.” — Sapa-AFP