World

Court Losses For Pinochet

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 26, 2000 / 4:18 PM EST / CBS

In a setback to Gen. Augusto Pinochet, Chile's Supreme Court on Friday refused a request to remove a judge who is seeking to try the former dictator on human rights charges.

Also Friday, Santiago Appeals Court Judge Juan Guzman rejected the 85-year-old former ruler's request to postpone neurological and mental tests and legal questioning.

Pinochet's lawyers have been angered by Guzman's attempts to restore charges against the general for atrocities committed by the "Caravan of Death," a military group linked to the deaths and disappearances of 77 leftists shortly after the 1973 coup Pinochet led.

The tests and questioning are the final barriers for Guzman to reinstate the homicide and kidnapping charges. The Supreme Court overturned a previous indictment last month because Guzman failed to question Pinochet first.

Pinochet's lawyers and relatives have warned that he will not show up for the procedures, which are scheduled to take place from Sunday to Tuesday. Pinochet is asking the full Appeals Court to reconsider; that is his last hope to have the procedures postponed.

Chilean law requires testing to determine the psychological state of anyone older than 70 who is facing possible trial. Pinochet could avoid trial if declared mad or demented.

Guzman, who is probing more than 200 lawsuits filed against Pinochet, told reporters on Thursday he will reorder the arrest of Pinochet if he refuses to present himself for the mental tests.

Pinochet's lawyers have criticized the timing of the tests and the scheduled interrogation of Pinochet because the medical results will not be known before the questioning, even though they may have a vital impact on the case.

As the court decisions were announced, military and religious groups delivered to the president the results of a six-month study on the fate of nearly 1,200 dissidents who disappeared during Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship.

Details on the information were sketchy, but a spokesman for President Ricardo Lagos called it "important in numbers and quality." Claudio Huepe also said Lagos would send the information to the courts on Saturday and then report to the relatives of the victims and the nation.

According to reports by representatives from the churches, the information could help determine what happened to scores, if not hundreds of the missing.

In some cases bodies may be located, they said, and in others the information may simply help clarify the way the victims were killed and their bodies disposed of. It has been known for years that hundreds of the missing were killed and thrown into the sea.

People who gave information during the investigations were promised anonymity.

According to an official report by the government that succeeded Pinochet, 1,197 people disappeared after being arrested. Only 193 bodies have been found.

A government-commissioned 1991 report says more than 3,000 people died or disappeared because of political violence durng Pinochet's rule.

The government said it will pass the reports on to the courts to see if it can be of use in prosecuting those responsible for human rights violations.

Pinochet was detained in Britain in October 1998 at the request of a Spanish judge who wanted to try him on charges of torture. He spent 503 days under house arrest before being allowed to return home after the British legal system ruled he was too old and sick to be put on trial.