Chile's Supreme Court cleared the way yesterday for former dictator Augusto Pinochet to face charges of murder, torture and other rights abuses at Villa Grimaldi, one of the most infamous prisons run by his secret police.
"He's been stripped of immunity," a court source told Reuters after the decision by a Supreme Court panel in Santiago.
The ruling means Pinochet, 90, can be charged with human rights abuses related to the Villa Grimaldi prison, where thousands of his opponents - including current Chilean President Michelle Bachelet - were tortured between 1974 and 1977.
Ms Bachelet and her mother were tortured there in 1975 before going into exile.
The Supreme Court ruling involved a judicial investigation of dozens of different torture victims from Villa Grimaldi, not including the Bachelets.
Now people who were actually held in Villa Grimaldi can testify," Sebastian Brett, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, said of the ruling. Chile's government has documented close to 30,000 cases of torture during the dictatorship and military officers have been convicted of the crime but Pinochet has never been formally charged with torture.
Pinochet has lost his immunity from prosecution - a privilege of former presidents - in several other human rights cases. Chile's courts must decide the immunity issue on a case-by-case basis.
"I am very happy," said Pedro Matta, who was tortured in Villa Grimaldi in May 1975, when he was a law student and member of Chile's socialist youth.
"This is another step forward to uncovering some of the crime committed during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile."
Villa Grimaldi, at the eastern edge of the capital, was one of the main holding places for political prisoners in the early years of Pinochet's 17-year rule, which began with a 1973 coup.
n other cases Pinochet has been charged with tax fraud and kidnapping - a charge that refers to people who disappeared in police custody and are presumed dead. He has never been convicted since his defence has successfully argued that his mild dementia makes him too ill for trial.
Under Pinochet's regime, an estimated 3,000 people died or disappeared. Dozens of military officers and former agents of the secret police have been convicted of human rights crimes.
"At this point it is impossible to maintain the (supposed) innocence of a person charged with different blood crimes," said Eduardo Contreras, a lawyer for Grimaldi victims. A former secret police agent has testified that he was with Pinochet when he visited a communist leader at an army base after he was tortured at Villa Grimaldi.