MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean judge indicts Pinochet.

After deciding that Augusto Pinochet is mentally fit to stand trial, a Chilean judge on Monday indicted the 89-year-old former dictator for his alleged role in the abduction and summary execution of suspected political opponents in the 1970s.

Judge Juan Guzman also ordered the retired general's house arrest pending trial in the "Operation Condor" case.

The ruling is likely to be appealed by Pinochet's lawyers. The Chilean Supreme Court in July 2002 upheld other tribunals' determinations that Pinochet, who has been diagnosed with senility-like "dementia," was unfit for trial.

Guzman in 2001 had indicted Pinochet for his alleged role in "The Caravan of Death," a military squad that traveled to several garrisons in late 1973 to oversee the execution of scores of political prisoners.

It was in that case that the Supreme Court ruled the ex-despot, who ruled from 1973-90, was unable to participate in his own defense.

Guzman made the new ruling after having Pinochet examined in recent months by three psychiatric and medical experts. The judge also briefly questioned Pinochet personally last Sept. 25 about Condor, the coordinated repression of real or imagined opponents effected by several South American dictatorships in the 1970s.

Two of the experts employed in the latest examinations said Pinochet's mental state had deteriorated to the extent it probably should preclude his trial. The third said his lapses were a relatively minor result of advanced age and would not impede his understanding of and participation in criminal proceedings.

Guzman, in ruling Pinochet fit enough, cited an interview the general gave a Miami television station last year in which he appeared lucid.

Pinochet, in his September interrogation, denied any role in the abduction and killing of leftists, claiming he did not get involved in "minor matters." The charges filed Monday refer to the "disappearance" - or abduction and presumed slaying - of nine people and the murder of one other person.

Guzman said that Pinochet "is capable of discerning between good and bad. That was evident from the interview he gave the Miami station." "He also can distinguish between what is is principal and secondary" to a matter under discussion, the judge said. "He is not demented, and is in condition to stand trial," he added.

The appeals process could drag on for months.

Pinochet, accused in Condor and also of squirreling away ill-gotten millions in foreign bank accounts, suffered another legal setback on Dec. 2 with the lifting of his immunity from prosecution in the 1974 car-bomb assassination of an erstwhile comrade-in-arms.

The Santiago Appeals Court ruled in the matter of the slaying 30 years ago in Buenos Aires of Gen. Carlos Prats and his wife Sofia.

Pinochet's immunity - which he enjoys as a former president - had already been lifted in the Condor case.

Prats, Pinochet's predecessor as army chief, was opposed to the coup plans being hatched in 1973 by Pinochet and other top brass, plans that came to fruition with the September 11 putsch against leftist President Salvador Allende. Prats, fearing persecution for his stance, went into exile in Argentina with his wife.

The top echelon of DINA, Pinochet's feared secret police, has been indicted for the Prats slaying, and a Chilean agent was convicted and sentenced in Argentina for the crime.

Investigators in the United States this year also discovered up to $12 million in Washington bank accounts in the names of Pinochet and his relatives and under aliases disguising the retired general's ownership. Criminal complaints alleging that the hidden money was embezzled or otherwise illegally obtained have been filed in Chile.