MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Defense to appeal Pinochet's house arrest.

Defense lawyers of former military ruler General Augusto Pinochet will go to Court to try to block an order for his house arrest and indictment on murder and kidnap charges.Judge Juan Guzmán reissued the arrest order this week after it was thrown out earlier in January on a technicality.

Pinochet is charged with masterminding 57 murders and 18 kidnappings of political opponents carried out by a 1973 military hit squad called the "Caravan of death".

Judge Guzman has been investigating General Pinochet for three years and if the appeal fails police will visit the former dictator's home to notify him of his house arrest.

When questioned about the killings, Pinochet declared to Judge Guzman that the life of prisoners was in the hands of the regional Commanders. However, a former general fearing he was being unfairly blamed turned up with written evidence that is was Pinochet himself that was behind the "Caravan of death".

The news of the arrest order was greeted with cheers from relatives of some of the victims but the Chilean Commander in Chief of the Army said given Pinochet's age and the fact he is a former president, he is being "unfairly treated".

Retired officers close to Pinochet complained that the "judicial branch was bias", adding that "this is something has never happened in Chilean history".

However the Chilean government remained silent and Home Secretary Patrico Insulza simply said that the Executive "does not comment judicial decisions".

Judge Guzman acknowledged that a book written by a Chilean investigative journalist, Patricia Verdugo, "The claws of the puma", had been vital to unearth details and procedures of the "Caravan of death".