The Chilean judge investigating allegations that former-president Mr Augusto Pinochet is responsible for the death and disappearance of people who had been opposed to his rule has ordered his re-arrest.
Human rights groups want Mr Pinochet tried for allegedly planning the disappearances and deaths of more than 70 leftists during his 1973-1990 rule.
It had been thought that the former president was immune from prosecution because he is a life-time Senator - a rule he intruded while he was in power. But in October 1998 he was arrested by police in London on foot of a warrant from a Spanish judge who wanted to try him for human rights abuses.
Mr Pinochet succeeded in a 500-day battle against extradition to Spain on grounds that he was too ill. It had been thought he was safe from trial when he returned to Chile in March 2000 because local courts were assumed to be powerless to try him.
But in a landmark decision, Chile's Supreme Court ruled that Mr Pinochet's alleged involvement in the deaths and disappearances of suspected leftists in the "Death Caravan" case warranted revoking his immunity from prosecution. The caravan was a military squad that travelled Chile in a helicopter in the days following the Sept. 11, 1973, coup.
That ruling opened the door for Judge Juan Guzman, who is investigating more than 200 cases of Pinochet-era human rights atrocities, to order his arrest and trial.
In December 2000, Mr Guzman ordered Mr Pinochet to be arrested and tried, but the Supreme Court ruled the judge must first interrogate him and order mental exams for him, a right given to those older than 70 to see if they are mentally fit to stand trial. Those two requirements were completed this month.
Reuters