MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Court drops charges against Pinochet's family

Pinochet family free of corruption charges

Chilean appellate court has dropped corruption charges against the widow and children of the late former dictator Augusto Pinochet. The general's family was alleged to have assisted him hide more than 30 million US dollars in offshore accounts during his 1973 to 1990 rule.

In announcing its findings Friday, the court said there was no evidence that the Pinochet family had any knowledge of a criminal attempt to misuse public funds. The court also dropped charges against ten of General Pinochet's former associates and aides. Among the defense team's arguments was that they could not be accused of misusing public funds as they were not state officials, Chilean media said. General Pinochet himself was alleged to have hidden about 30 million US dollars in offshore accounts with the help of the Washington-based Riggs bank. He was being investigated for tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement in relation to that money before his death last December. General Pinochet's family had been accused of transferring the money illegally to foreign bank accounts and were arrested on 4 October and then released on bail shortly afterwards. In 2004 a US Senate investigation found hundreds of bank accounts in the name of Pinochet and his relatives at Riggs bank. Pinochet was also being investigated for tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement in relation to those funds. Pinochet's immunity from prosecution was removed in 2000, sparking years of legal wrangling to try to bring him to trial for alleged human rights abuses and tax fraud but the 91 year old general had a fatal heart attack in December 2006 while under house arrest.