World

Pinochet Win In Court

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 11, 2000 / 1:35 PM EST / CBS

Chile's Supreme Court dropped homicide and kidnapping charges against former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

The ruling was read by a court clerk Wednesday outside the courthouse in Santiago.

The five-judge panel voted 4-1 in favor of Pinochet, affirming a lower court's decision last week to drop the charges, Justice Humberto Espejo said in an interview with Radio Bio Bio. The retired general had been charged with organizing the 1973 "Caravan of Death," a military operation that executed 73 political prisoners.

The court ended two days of closed door hearings Tuesday but kept its decision secret to give time for the legal text of the ruling to be written.

It was the second victory for Pinochet this week in his long legal battle. On Tuesday, the Santiago Court of Appeals ruled that the medical tests he is to undergo to determine his fitness to stand trial be conducted at the army hospital.

Opponents were asking that he be examined at a public university hospital, claiming a military bias in favor of the nation's former top military leader.

Pinochet had been indicted Dec. 1 by Judge Juan Guzman on charges he was responsible for the wave of executions shortly after the 1973 coup in which Pinochet overthrew Marxist President Salvador Allende. Guzman charged Pinochet with homicide in the deaths of 55 people whose bodies were recovered after the "Caravan of Death," and with kidnapping for 18 who remain unaccounted for.

Chilean law only exempts people from penal responsibilities in cases of insanity or madness. However, while Pinochet's deteriorated health would not cancel the legal procedures against him, it could have indefinitely delayed them.

Pinochet suffers from diabetes, wears a pacemaker, has arthritis and suffered mild strokes during his 16-month house arrest in London until last March.

The detention order against Pinochet, 85, the patriarch of the military, has sparked concern within Chilean right-wing groups and the armed forces, which wield enormous power in this South American nation of 15 million people.

More than 3,000 people died or disappeared under Pinochet's authoritarian regime in which witch hunts of leftists were common. Tens of thousands of Chileans fled the country.

Pinochet had been regarded as largely untouchable in Chile. A decade before he stepped down, Pinochet rewrote Chile's Constitution, giving any past president who had served at least six years the right to become "senator for life," which carries lifetime immunity.

Pinochet returned to Chile from Britain in March after spending 503 days under house arrest near London. He was detained in Britain in October 1998 at the request of a Spanish judge who wanted to try him on charges of torture, but Britain ruled he was too old and sick to be tried.

He escaped extradition to Madrid after Britain's ruling, but this August lost his immunity in a ruling by the Supreme Court.