Pinochet Faces New Trial On Reduced Charges
by Gustavo Gonzalez
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by Gustavo Gonzalez |
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(IPS) SANTIAGO --
Former
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet will return to the Supreme Court after an appeals tribunal ruled March 8 that the elderly retired general must face trial for human rights abuses, though on lesser charges of having covered them up rather then directly ordering them.
Two of the judges of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Gabriela Perez and Sonia Araneda, upheld the indictment that Judge Juan Guzman issued against Pinochet on Jan. 29. The lone dissenter on the three-judge appeals court was Cornelio Villarroel, who believed the charges against the former dictator for 57 homicides and 18 kidnappings of political prisoners in 1973 should be dropped due to the statute of limitations and the application of the 1978 amnesty law. Perez and Araneda, however, saw fit to allow Guzman's indictment stand against Pinochet, 85, who last year was stripped of the legal protections afforded him as senator-for-life. But the two judges ruled that the accused will be tried for allegedly covering up -- not masterminding -- the kidnappings and homicides committed in October 1973 by the military operation known as the "caravan of death." The judges' decision proved unsatisfactory to both the prosecution and the defence teams in the case involving the man who headed the right-wing military regime that governed Chile with an iron fist from September 1973 -- when a Pinochet-led coup overthrew the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende -- until March 1990. A 1991 report issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an official body set up by the democratically elected government of Patricio Aylwin (1990-1994), stated that dictatorship's security forces committed 3,190 political assassinations and forced disappearances. Both sides will now turn to the Supreme Court -- the plaintiffs' attorneys to ask for confirmation of Guzman's charges that Pinochet was the author of the crimes, and the defense to seek the elderly former dictator's acquittal. Pinochet's lawyers are also expected to make a bid to have the charges dropped, under the argument that the accused is not physically healthy enough to stand trial.
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This
marks a new chapter in the long saga of legal proceedings against Pinochet, which began Oct. 16, 1998, when he was arrested in London on a warrant issued by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon.
The Chilean phase of the story commenced in March 2000, just days after Pinochet returned to his home country after spending 503 days under house arrest in Great Britain. Judge Guzman at the time requested that the former dictator's legal immunity as lifetime senator be repealed so that he could face trial as part of the ongoing investigations into the "caravan of death," a military mission that travelled the country to summarily execute political prisoners in order to "facilitate" their military trials. Little more than a year after his return to Chile, Pinochet is still under the watchful gaze of justice authorities. He is under house arrest at his vacation home in Los Boldos de Bucalemu, a town near Santiago, as the court's decision also upheld Guzman's order for confinement. Viviana Diaz, president of Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared (AFDD) and a Communist Party activist, stated that the new ruling could constitute legal protection for Pinochet and a reduction of any future prison sentence. The ruling "is shameful," the human rights leader said. "Are they attempting to make us to believe that the military junta in 1973 was not led by Pinochet, but by (Gen. Sergio) Arellano Stark?" wondered Diaz, referring to the official who, as personal delegate of then-dictator Pinochet, headed the "caravan of death." Meanwhile, Mireya Garcia, AFDD vice president and a socialist, expressed satisfaction with the Court of Appeals ruling, though she disagreed with the decision to reduce Pinochet's role from alleged instigator to an accessory after the fact. "We must keep in mind that this involves an indictment, and what will determine Pinochet's punishment will be the final sentencing. I believe he will be condemned as the author (of the crimes," maintained Hugo Gutierrez, one of the lawyers on the prosecution team. According to Carmen Hertz, also on the plaintiffs' legal team, charging Pinochet only for covering up the crime "does not correspond to the merits (evidence) of the case," but she also pointed out that the indictment is provisional and what counts is the final sentencing. Gen. Guillermo Garin, former assistant commander of the army and current Pinochet spokesman, said he was somewhat satisfied with the change in the classification of the crime. However, he announced that the defense would appeal to the Supreme Court, where Pinochet's attorneys will insist on the retired general's innocence and request his exemption from trial for health reasons. Claudio Huepe, minister of the presidency, indicated as unlikely any response from the armed forces arising from this new phase in the case against Pinochet, who was chief of the military dictatorship for 17 years and led the army for 25 years. Shortly before the Court of Appeals ruling was announced, Gen. Ricardo Izurieta, current commander of the army, gave a lecture at the Military School in which he proposed that submission to constitutional norms and "the vocation of service to Chile" should be part of institutional doctrine. In his speech, Izurieta also expressed his support for the appeal made March 5 by the new cardinal of the Chilean Catholic Church, Francisco Javier Errazuriz, to seek national reconciliation based on justice, but also forgiveness and clemency, in cases involving human rights.
Albion Monitor
March 19, 2001 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor) All Rights Reserved. Contact rights@monitor.net for permission to use in any format. |
