Pinochet Stripped of Immunity

A Chilean court stripped the country's former dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, of his immunity from prosecution today, paving the way for his trial on human rights charges.

The court in Santiago voted 14-9 to lift the immunity Pinochet enjoys as a former president.

An appeal against the decision may still be launched at the supreme court, which has repeatedly ruled that Pinochet, 88, is neither physically nor mentally fit to stand trial.

A 2002 report by court-appointed doctors stated that Pinochet suffers from diabetes, arthritis and a mild case of dementia. He also uses a pacemaker and has had at least three mild strokes since 1998.

Prosecution lawyer Francisco Bravo said the court's decision came as a surprise.

"We receive this with deep surprise but also with deep pride," he said. "We stress that what was at stake today was not Pinochet's health, but the principle of equality before the law."

"This ruling enables the relatives of the victims and the whole of Chilean society to again trust Chile's justice," he added.

Lorena Pizarro, the head of an association for relatives of victims of repression during Pinochet's rule, described the decision as "very good news". "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," she said. Human rights lawyers in Chile and abroad have tried to sue Pinochet many times before.

On October 16 1998 he was arrested at a London hospital on a warrant issued by judge Baltasar Garzón for his extradition to Spain for trial on torture charges.

But after a 16-month legal battle the then-home secretary, Jack Straw, ruled that he should not be extradited, and on March 2 2000 he returned to Chile.

Without immunity, Pinochet could be prosecuted for 108 different criminal complaints lodged against him.

Chile's state defence council, which participated in the effort to remove his immunity, has investigated several high-profile murders committed during the 1973-90 dictatorship.

More than 3,000 people were killed or disappeared under Pinochet's rule.

The most serious cases include the murder of labour leader Tucapel Jiménez in 1987 and that of investigative reporter José Carrasco in 1986. The most advanced investigations concern the "Caravan of Death" in which a group of military officers toured the country hauling political activists from their jail cells, torturing and executing them.

Pinochet could also be prosecuted in connection with the disappearance of nine leftwing activists who were arrested in Argentina within the framework of "Operation Condor", a transnational network of state-sponsored terror that repressed opponents of the region's military dictatorships.