MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lagos denies “persecution” of Pinochets

Chilean government spokesperson Ricardo Lagos Webber denied Sunday allegations that the government was deliberately persecuting Augusto Pinochet's widow and five children. His remarks come after Pinochet's eldest daugher–who, along with her four siblings, was released on bail Friday—charged that the family had been held in the so-called Riggs Bank case as “political prisoners.”

Six of former dictator Augusto Pinochet's immediate family members – including his widow Lucia Hiriart, his three daughters and two sons - were among the 23 individuals arrested Thursday by Judge Carlos Cerda in his investigation into the family's mysterious wealth, first discovered in 2004 when U.S. justice officials revealed Pinochet's US$8 million bank account in Washington D.C.'s Riggs Bank. Judge Cerda's three-year investigation uncovered at least US$27 million in Pinochet family wealth that has no apparent explanation and charged the family with stealing the money from a variety of government funds. Within hours of Judge Cerda's announcement, all five of Pinochet's children had turned themselves in to authorities. Meanwhile, Lucia Hiriart, was taken from her mansion in La Dehesa to Santiago's Military Hospital after a sudden rise in her blood pressure. At press time Sunday, her situation was said to be improving slowly. She is expected to remain hospitalized until at least Wednesday. Shortly after the five were put behind bars, Pinochet lawyers filed complaints citing infringements on the detainees' fundamental rights and freedoms. The next day, Judge Cerda allowed the six to go free on bail. "Everyone has the right to confront legal proceedings while being free. For that reason, and also because I will be leaving the country shortly, I have decided to hand down this ruling," Cerda said Friday. Cerda made those remarks shortly before taking off for the United States, where he will receive a prestigious human rights award from the Gruber Foundation. The Gruber Foundation reward has to two with Judge Cerda's efforts to advance human cases during the Pinochet dictatorship, a risky proposition in those years and one that earned him a stern rebuke from Chile's Supreme Court and almost cost him his judgeship. Upon being released, the six suspects harshly criticized both the Concertación government and judicial authorities. The most critical outcry came from Lucía Pinochet, the former dictator's eldest daughter. "All the people who applauded our arrest are the ones whose popularity, according to recent surveys, is plummeting. They are the people who have really stolen millions of dollars from our nation," Lucía Pinochet said Saturday. "This judge has turned us into political prisoners (â€Ã‚¦) I have no doubt that the courts will soon rule in our favor and will exonerate us of these absurd accusations." Government officials were quick to respond to these accusations. "It is not to hard to imagine that there are people who do not like judicial rulings," Lagos Webber said. "But, when someone goes on to say that the Chilean judicial system is fixed or that there are political persecutions, then that person should be more prudent." Judge Cerda's investigation into the suspect US$27 million placed by Gen. Pinochet (his family or underlings) in foreign bank accounts determined that large amounts of money were transferred immediately after Pinochet lost the October 5, 1988 plebiscite that launched the nation into its transition to democracy. Some authorities suggest that the Pinochet family's unaccounted for wealth total as much as US$100 million once the investigation is complete. Gen. Pinochet was first indicted in 2004 on charges of money laundering, tax evasion, and falsifying documents; his wife and five children have also been consistently linked to the case. The Santiago Times