CHILE: A Chilean appeals court has withdrawn legal immunity from former dictator Augusto Pinochet in a move that could lead to a human rights trial against him, the president of the Supreme Court said yesterday in Santiago."The withdrawal of legal immunity concerns (a case) of the disappearance of opponents of the military regime."
Gen Pinochet seized power in 1973 in a bloody coup and ruled until 1990. More than 3,000 people were killed or disappeared under his rule.
Gen Pinochet (88) has avoided trial for alleged human rights crimes on the grounds that he is mentally unfit.
If the decision to strip immunity is confirmed by the Supreme Court, the general could be prosecuted in connection with the disappearance of nine left-wing activists who were arrested in Argentina in the framework of "Operation Condor", a South American spy network that repressed opponents of those countries' military dictatorships.