Chile's Supreme Court stripped former dictator Augusto Pinochet of immunity today to face charges in a human rights case involving the use of torture at the infamous Villa Grimaldi prison.
"He's been stripped of immunity," a court source told Reuters after the decision by a Supreme Court panel in Santiago.
The ruling opens the way for Pinochet to be charged with human rights abuse, murder and torture. Thousands of people were tortured between 1974 and 1977 at Villa Grimaldi prison, one of the most infamous political detention centers run by Pinochet's secret police.
President Michelle Bachelet and her mother were tortured there early in 1975 before going into exile.