Pinochet's 503 Days in Britian

by Gustavo Gonzalez

His flight home in a Chilean Air Force jet put an end to an unprecedented international human rights case which had triggered a spate of legal, diplomatic and political conflicts.

Following are the highlights of the case that silently began to take shape four years ago.

Pinochet came to power in September 1973 in a bloody coup against the democratically elected government of socialist President Salvador Allende.

Some 3,000 people were killed during the coup and its aftermath, when real or suspected leftists, including scores of Spanish citizens, were rounded up by the army and police and "disappeared" or killed outright.

• March 1996: Spain's Progressive Union of Prosecutors brings a lawsuit on charges of genocide and international terrorism against the military officers who ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, which ends up in the hands of Judge Baltasar Garzon.

• July 1996: Spanish Judge Manuel Garcia Castellon takes on another legal action filed by the same group against the military dictatorship headed by Pinochet from September 1973 to March 1990 in Chile.

• 11 March 1998: Pinochet swears in as life senator in the Chilean Congress in Valparaiso, a day after stepping down as army commander, a post he held since Aug 23, 1973. General Ricardo Izurieta succeeds him as army chief.

• 22 September: The now retired general travels to London on a diplomatic passport extended to him as a senator by the Chilean Foreign Ministry, on an ambiguous mission reportedly linked to the purchase of military equipment and an invitation by the Royal Ordenance armament company.

• 30 September: Chileans find out that Pinochet is in London from news dispatches from Paris, which report that the French government refused him an entry visa.

• 9 October: The former dictator undergoes back surgery for a slipped disc at a London clinic.

• 10 October: Amnesty International announces in the British capital that it will seek Pinochet's arrest on charges of human rights violations.

• 14 October: Through the International Police (Interpol), Judge Garzon requests Pinochet's arrest on charges of involvement in Operation Condor, a joint operation to crack down on real or suspected opponents of the military regimes ruling the Southern Cone of South America in the 1970s and 1980s.

• 16 October: Garzon issues an international arrest warrant for Pinochet. British Justice Nicholas Evans admits the request, and at 18:00 GMT Scotland Yard agents arrest Pinochet as he recovers from surgery in the clinic.

• 17 October: The Chilean government formally protests before the British government over the arrest of the life senator, which the army has termed an "unwonted and unacceptable" action.

  Violent incidents occur during the first protests by Pinochet supporters outside the British and Spanish embassies in Santiago. Human rights groups and organizations of survivors and families of victims of the repression celebrate the former dictator's arrest.

• 19 October: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan states that the arrest "seems to indicate that international human rights law is coming into its own, and that attempts are going to be made to enforce this law against those who are deemed to have committed crimes."

  The head of Spain's Audiencia Nacional court, Eduardo Fungairino, institutes proceedings against Garzon, alleging that he lacked the legal competence to order Pinochet's arrest.

• 20 October: The government of Eduardo Frei insists that Pinochet is protected by diplomatic immunity. Pinochet's health is reported to take a turn for the worse.

  The right-wing Independent Democratic Union (UDI) pins the blame for Pinochet's arrest on an "international socialist campaign." Judge Garcia Castillon leaves the cases against the former de facto military regimes of Chile and Argentina in Garzon's hands.

• 21 October: In a letter to the London daily The Times, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher calls for the immediate release of Pinochet, who helped save "English lives" during the 1982 Argentine-British war over the Malvinas/Falklands islands.

• 22 October: The European Parliament expresses its support for Pinochet's arrest. President Frei says he may invoke "humanitarian grounds" in an attempt to secure the former dictator's release.

• 24 October: Huge crowds of Pinochet supporters in posh Santiago neighborhoods demand his release.

• 25 October: Some 15,000 Chileans answer a call by human rights groups and leftist organizations, gathering in the O'Higgins Park in Santiago to cheer Pinochet's arrest.

• 26 October: Switzerland requests Pinochet's extradition from Great Britain, and two lawsuits against the former dictator are filed in France.

• 28 October: London's High Court recognizes Pinochet's sovereign immunity as a former chief of state, but the British Crown Prosecution Service immediately appeals the ruling to the House of Lords.

• 30 October: On a unanimous decision handed down by its 11 magistrates, Spain's Audiencia Nacional court rejects Fungairino's appeal, and rules that Garzon is competent to go ahead with the trial against Pinochet.

• 2 November: Chilean Interior Minister Raul Troncoso says the government will defend Pinochet, based on the principle of diplomatic immunity and against the extraterritorial reach of justice.

• 4 November: The House of Lords appeal panel in London beings to hold hearings.

• 6 November: Spain's Council of Ministers gives the go-ahead to Britain's extradition warrant for Pinochet. The Frei administration recalls Chile's Ambassador in Madrid, Sergio Pizarro, in protest. The army corps of generals meets in assembly.

• 7 November: In his first public statement since his arrest, Pinochet complains about his plight in a letter to The Sunday Times written against the advice of his attorneys.

• 11 November: In its first meeting since the start of the Pinochet affair, the National Security Council (Cosena), comprised of the commanders of the armed forces and Carabineros police, backs the position taken by President Frei.

• 25 November: On Pinochet's 83rd birthday, a five-judge tribunal of Law Lords, members of the House of Lords, rule 3-2 that Pinochet is not entitled to immunity and can be prosecuted. The former dictator's supporters react heatedly, lashing out against journalists.

  Leftist and human rights organizations rejoice; 116 demonstrators are arrested in Chile.

• 26 November: Cosena holds its second meeting since the start of the Pinochet affair, and decides that then-Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Insulza will travel to Spain and Great Britain.

• 1 December: Pinochet is taken by ambulance under police escort to a mansion leased in the posh London district of Virginia Waters, where he is to remain under house arrest.

• 5 December: The November 25 decision by the Law Lords is questioned due to the ties of one of the justices, Leonard Hoffmann, to the rights watchdog Amnesty International.

• 9 December: British Home Secretary Jack Straw allows proceedings for Pinochet's extradition to Spain to go ahead in British courts.

• 11 December: In a wheelchair, Pinochet appears before British Justice Graham Parkison, amidst tight security. "I do not recognize the jurisdiction of any other court except in my own country to try me," the former dictator tells the court.

  A long letter, announced as Pinochet's "political testament," is released in Chile, in which he declares himself innocent of the 3,197 assassinations and forced disappearances committed by the dictatorship. Cosena, in its third meeting, backs 13 legal and political measures to be taken with respect to relations with Spain and Great Britain.

• 17 December: A new panel of five Law Lords allows the review of the ruling denying Pinochet's immunity to go ahead, based on the objections raised by the retired general's defence lawyers regarding Lord Hoffmann's ties to Amnesty International.

• 12 February 1999: The Vatican acknowledges that it appealed to the British government in November for Pinochet's release on humanitarian grounds.

• 24 March: An appeals panel of Law Lords decides Pinochet does not enjoy immunity from prosecution on charges of gross rights violations.

  But the Law Lords severely curtail the number of charges on which the former dictator can be tried, to cases of torture and conspiracy to torture committed after Dec 8, 1988, when Britain signed the International Convention Against Torture.

• 7 April: Garzon reinforces the extradition request, adding 11 cases of torture committed in Chile from December 1988 to March 1990 to the only one included in his original charges against Pinochet.

• 8 April: Margaret Thatcher urges Straw not to allow the Spanish government's request for the extradition of the former dictator to proceed.

• 9 April: Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez, the chief defender of human rights during the early years of the dictatorship in Chile, dies at the age of 90.

• 17 April: Commander-in-chief of the Chilean army, General Ricardo Izurieta, visits Pinochet in his rented mansion in Virginia Waters.

• 29 April: Garzon adds another 12 cases of torture to the charges on which Pinochet could be extradited.

• 8 June: Thatcher visits Pinochet to express her continued solidarity.

• 17 June: Garzon increases the charges against Pinochet to 36 cases of torture and conspiracy to torture.

• 27 June: Chile's new Foreign Minister, Juan Gabriel Valdes, meets his Spanish counterpart Abel Matutes, invoking humanitarian reasons for Pinochet's release.

• 29 June: Frei tells Aznar once again that the Chilean government will continue doing everything within its means to secure Pinochet's return to Chile.

• 30 June: The United States declassifies 5,800 intelligence reports on Chile, dating from 1973 to 1978, which confirm the existence of Operation Condor.

• 1 July: Sola Sierra, president of the Group of Families of the Detained-Disappeared (AFDD) and one of Pinochet's leading opponents, dies in Santiago at the age of 63.

• 6 July: Thatcher appears before the House of Lords for the first time in three years to argue that Pinochet is the victim of an international campaign by the left, and a conspiracy between the governments of Spain and Great Britain.

• 9 July: Pinochet declares that he will not return to Chile on humanitarian grounds, and that his arrest is an attack on Chilean sovereignty and international law.

• 17 July: In an interview, Pinochet describes himself as "England's only political prisoner."

• 29 July: The Chilean government receives a medical report stating that Pinochet's life is at risk due to 14 specific health problems.

• 4 August: Foreign Minister Valdes denies that "secret" negotiations have been held with Spain with respect to possible arbitration on Madrid's competence to try Pinochet.

• 6 August: The British police refute reports that Pinochet is seriously ill.

• 7 August: Spanish Foreign Minister Matutes declares that no agreement has been reached with Chile to refer the Pinochet case to arbitration.

• 9 August: Aznar reiterates that his government will respect all decisions handed down by the courts.

• 16 August: After visiting Pinochet in London, Admiral Jorge Arancibia, the commander of the Chilean navy, declares that Pinochet will agree to being released on humanitarian grounds.

• 23 August: In the presence of Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart, the Augusto Pinochet Foundation commemorates in Santiago the 26th anniversary of the former dictator's designation as commander-in- chief of the army in 1973.

• 26 and 31 August: Pinochet is admitted to a clinic to undergo a number of medical exams, including an assessment of the loss of sensation in his legs.

• 31 August: A negotiating table on human rights is set up in Santiago, with representatives of the armed forces, human rights lawyers, and religious, academic and cultural figures.

• 9 September: A lawsuit against Pinochet is lodged in Santiago in connection with the disappearance of 119 Chileans, allegedly victims of Operation Condor, who were reported killed in violent incidents in Argentina during the dictatorship.

• 10 September: The Chilean government denounces an arbitration treaty signed in 1929 with Spain.

• 11 September: The 26th anniversary of the 1973 coup is commemorated in Chile, for the first time without Pinochet.

• 14 September: Spain rules out any chance of settling the Pinochet case in arbitration. The former dictator writes an open letter to Chileans, which takes a conciliatory tone. In the letter, the former dictator expresses his support for the negotiating table on human rights, and laments the pain "of those who have suffered in the past."

• 15 September: Valdes announces that Chile will take the dispute with Spain to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, based on the provisions of the International Convention Against Torture.

• 16 September: Valdes meets executives of Spanish companies in Chile, in an apparent effort to apply pressure in favor of Pinochet's release, but is later forced to guarantee that Chile will stand by its investment agreements with Spain.

• 20 September: Pinochet sends a letter of support and solidarity to retired general Humberto Gordon, former chief of the dictatorship's secret police, arrested in connection with the 1983 murder of social democratic trade unionist Tucapel Jimenez.

• 27 September: Amidst loud demonstrations for and against Pinochet, the extradition proceedings get underway in London's Bow Street Magistrates Court. In Chile, the lawsuits lodged against Pinochet total 45.

• 8 October: Magistrate Bartle hands down his verdict, authorizing Pinochet's extradition to Spain on the basis of 34 cases of torture and conspiracy to torture filed by Garzon. The former dictator's defence attorneys say they plan to appeal the ruling. The president of the Chilean Supreme Court, Roberto Davila, questions the British court's decision.

• 10 October: The Chilean Supreme Court approves a questionnaire to be sent to Pinochet in connection with the lawsuits filed against him in Chile.

• 14 October: The Chilean government makes an official request to Britain, through its ambassador to London Pablo Cabrera, that the former dictator be released on humanitarian grounds due to the steady deterioration of his state of health.

• 15 October: Straw declares that he will carefully study the Chilean government's request. The British Home Office confirms that Frei sent a confidential personal letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, expressing his concern over how the Pinochet case was affecting Chile on the domestic front, as well as its relations with Britain.

• 16 October: Human rights organizations hold a massive march in Santiago to celebrate the first anniversary of Pinochet's arrest.

• 20 October: Spanish Foreign Minister Abel Matutes says his government will neither oppose, nor lobby for, a decision by Straw to free Pinochet on humanitarian grounds.

• 21 October: Pinochet receives a questionnaire from Judge Guzman referring to the so-called "caravan of death" in which leaders of the opposition to the de facto Chilean regime were killed in 1973, and the ex-dictator's ties to former director of DINA (Pinochet's secret police), Gen. Manuel Contreras.

• 22 October: Pinochet's British defence lawyers appeal Bartle's ruling before the London High Court, and file a court injunction on behalf of the former dictator.

• 2 November: The Chilean Foreign Ministry reports that Pinochet failed to directly address the 75 questions on Judge Guzman's questionnaire.

• 4 November: Judge Guzman studies the possibility of seeking the suspension of Pinochet's immunity as life senator, necessary before he can be brought to court.

• 5 November: Straw accepts the Chilean government's request and orders medical exams for Pinochet, to decide whether to exercise his authority to deny extradition and authorize Pinochet's return to Chile.

• 9 November: Frei and then-president of Argentina Carlos Menem declare in Chile that they will not attend the Ibero-American Summit a week later in Havana in protest against Spain's position in the Pinochet case.

• 16 November: The Ibero-American Summit in Havana issues statements against interventionism and the extraterritorial reach of justice, but without specifically mentioning the Pinochet affair.

• 17 November: Spain's Audiencia Nacional court levies a distress upon Pinochet's bank accounts outside Chile. In London, the lease for the Virginia Waters mansion is renewed.

• 28 November: The Chilean government decides to postpone the filing of a lawsuit against Spain before the International Court of Justice.

• 3 December: Pinochet's defence attorneys and the British Crown Prosecution Service appear before the London High Court in the first stage of the appeal against Magistrate Bartle's ruling.

• 12 December: The first round of presidential elections ends in Chile with a virtual draw between the governing coalition's candidate, socialist Ricardo Lagos, and right-wing candidate Joaquin Lavin. Foreign Minister Valdes remarks that in his view, the medical exams of Pinochet ordered by Straw "are taking too long."

• 21 December: An appellate court of Spain's 'Audiencia Nacional' upholds Garzon's decision to expand his charges against Pinochet to a total of 72 cases of torture.

• 22 December: The British government decides that Pinochet is to be examined in January by a team of British geriatricians and neurologists to determine whether he is fit to stand trial in Spain.

• 1 January 2000: Pinochet, who has come down with a strong flu, welcomes the New Year in his Virginia Waters home in London, accompanied by his children Veronica and Marco Antonio and his wife Lucia Hiriart.

• 5 January: Pinochet undergoes seven hours of neurological and geriatric tests in the Northwick Park hospital in Harrow, north of London, where three British doctors decide whether he is mentally and physically fit for a trial that could stretch out for over two years.

• 7 January: Chilean Ambassador in London Pablo Cabrera says the results of the medical exams will be announced after the second round of Chile's presidential elections on Jan 16.

• 11 January: The British Home Office releases an official communique announcing its inclination to deny Pinochet's extradition to Spain on the basis of the medical reports, which indicate that he is unfit to stand trial. Straw sets a deadline for challenges to be filed within seven days.

• 16 January: Ricardo Lagos triumphs in the runoff in Chile.

• 27 January: The Aguila, a Chilean Air Force Boeing 707, equipped as a mobile hospital unit, lands at the Brize Norton air base in London to bring Pinochet back to Santiago once he is released.

• 8 February: The London High Court admits challenges by the Belgian government and six human rights groups seeking a judicial review of Straw's decision to release Pinochet, and demanding that the medical report be made public.

• 15 February: The London High Court orders that Straw hand over the medical exams -- in the "strictest confidentiality" -- to the governments of Belgium, Spain, France and Switzerland, the countries seeking his extradition, to allow them to make observations.

• 16 February: Two Spanish newspapers publish the results of the medical exams according to which Pinochet has suffered "extensive brain damage."

• 18 February: After meeting Frei, the Vatican Secretary of State, Monsignor Angelo Sodano, declares that Pinochet's "odyssey" should end and that he "has the right to return to Chile."

• 29 February: Consulted by Straw, Pinochet's attorneys refuse further medical exams, which had been requested by Belgium, France, Switzerland and Judge Garzon.

• 2 March: Straw confirms his former decision to deny Pinochet's extradition to Spain, and announces his release. The 84-year-old former dictator takes off for Santiago from RAF Waddington air base in Lincolnshire, in the Chilean Air Force jet.