SANTIAGO, Chile - An appeals court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of his legal immunity Wednesday, a ruling that paved the way for the former dictator to stand trial on charges of responsibility for killing two bodyguards of the Marxist president he toppled in a bloody 1973 coup.
The ruling allows the judge handling the case, Victor Montiglio, to indict the 90-year-old retired general for allegedly killing two bodyguards of Salvador Allende.
Pinochet, who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, enjoys immunity from prosecution as a former president. But he faces a host of charges of human rights abuses, tax evasion and corruption.
Wednesday's ruling reopened one of the most notorious human rights cases involving Pinochet's dictatorship - the so-called Caravan of Death, in which 75 jailed dissidents were killed by a military party that toured the country in a helicopter in the weeks immediately after the coup.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Immunity for (most of) Life?
This is pretty good news about Pinochet; here's hoping the old bastard hangs in there long enough to face judgment. Also nice to bear in mind: we won't have to bother with this step--of removing "immunity for life"--for folks we may decide to try here in the future here at home.
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2 comments:
This is a test
As in: "only a test"?
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