MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pinochet stripped of immunity from prosecution

The Chilean Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for former dictator Augusto Pinochet to be prosecuted for his role in the killing and torturing of thousands of leftists during his iron fisted rule (1973/1990), but it is still to be seen if the aging general suffering from “dementia” will eventually stand trial.

The 9-8 decision puts the ex-strongman's fate in the hands of Judge Juan Guzman, the same magistrate who in 2001 placed him under house arrest for six months for the deaths of 75 political prisoners in the case known as the "Death caravan".

Chile's 17-member highest Court upheld a lower court's decision to strip Mr. Pinochet of immunity from prosecution supporting the "justifiable presumption" of his involvement in hundreds of killings and forced disappearances attributed to "Operation Condor".

"Condor" was a regional coordinated plan including military regimes from Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile to eliminate the "Marxist-communist" threat.

That unexpected ruling prompted celebration from victims' relatives and alarm from the former dictator's attorneys who expected a decision in line with the Supreme Court's July 2002 ruling stating Mr. Pinochet was unfit to stand trial.

Mr. Pinochet, 88, apparently suffers from "dementia" a condition consequence of at least two minor strokes in recent years.

Actually the high Court twice rejected similar petitions to indict the former dictator appealing to their own July 2002 controversial ruling given some of Mr. Pinochet public attitudes.

However this Thursday's decision suggests that new mental health and psychological examinations should be carried out.

The seven prosecuting attorneys argued in Wednesday's hearing that the retired general does not suffer from dementia since he has granted television interviews, has been seen shopping for books and lately apparently is involved in complex financial operations involving millions of US dollars.

"Pinochet was able to carry out complex banking operations and then coherently answer questions about these transfers asked by Judge Sergio Muñoz, who is investigating the origin of the former dictator's secret accounts in a U.S. bank" one of the attorneys pointed out.

A probe into banking money laundering conducted by a U.S. Senate panel found that Mr. Pinochet and his wife Lucia Hiriart drew anywhere between 4 and 8 million US dollars from accounts in Washington-based Riggs Bank between 1998 and 2002. The family's fortune until now unknown even to their closest advisors is estimated between 50 and 100 million US dollars, "a sum even the best paid general can never save", according to Chilean military sources.

Actually the Pinochet family secret fortune has shocked Chile and even long standing friends and supporters feel no longer attracted to this controversial figure that until recently kept the country divided.

According to court officials these arguments were instrumental in the 9-8 decision by the high Court that has also been exposed to public opinion indignation with recent events and consider the July 2002 ruling "a mockery" of justice.

This time nearly 100 Chilean survivors of Operation Condor are hoping Pinochet will finally be held accountable. Mr. Pinochet is accused of masterminding Operation Condor according to recent documents declassified in Paraguay, Chile and United States.