Pinochet faces charges after immunity lifted
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Chile's Supreme Court has lifted the legal immunity of former dictator Augusto Pinochet so he can face charges over the disappearance of regime opponents.
The court took the decision by ten votes to six.
It allowed prosecutors to lay charges against General Pinochet for "Operation Colombo", in which 119 members of the Revolutionary Leftist Movement (MIR) disappeared in July 1975 under his rule and are presumed dead.
Pinochet's government attributed the deaths to a battle between factions within the Chilean underground movement.
Some 3,000 persons died, by official count, during Pinochet's regime, from 1973 to 1990.
The 89-year-old was granted immunity from prosecution as the de facto head of state during that time. However, immunity may be lifted on a case-by-case basis in Chile.
Investigating magistrate Juan Guzman Tapia, now retired, had twice ordered Pinochet arrested, but his detention was blocked on health grounds.
A new magistrate, Victor Montiglio, will now investigate Pinochet's role in Operation Colombo. He also will have to submit Pinochet to medical and psychological exams to determine his fitness to defend himself in court.
Pinochet twice avoided trial by virtue of a medical diagnosis of dementia.
Another request to withdraw Pinochet's immunity was filed in June so that he may face charges that he bilked the government of as much as $US27 million, some of which was revealed in a US Senate investigation of money laundering.
-AFP
Topics: world-politics, courts-and-trials, chile
