Global InformationIndictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet information
Augusto Pinochet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Criminal status | Deceased |
| Criminal charge |
|
| Operation Condor |
|---|
General Augusto Pinochet was indicted for human rights violations committed in his native Chile by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón in 1998. He was arrested in London six days later and held on house arrest for a year and a half before being released by the British government in 2000. Authorised to return to Chile, Pinochet was subsequently indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia and charged with several crimes. He died in 2006 without having been convicted. His arrest in London made the front pages of newspapers worldwide; not only did it involve the head of the military dictatorship that ruled Chile between 1973 and 1990, it marked the first time judges had applied the principle of universal jurisdiction, declaring themselves competent to judge crimes committed in a country by former heads of state, despite the existence of local amnesty laws.
Pinochet led a 1973 coup which deposed Socialist President Salvador Allende. His 17-year regime was notorious for many human rights violations, some of which were committed as part of Operation Condor, an illegal effort to suppress left-wing political opponents in Chile and abroad in coordination with foreign intelligence agencies. Pinochet was also accused of using his position to pursue personal enrichment through embezzlement of government funds, the illegal drug trade and illegal arms trade. The Rettig Report found that at least 2,279 people were conclusively murdered by the Chilean government for political reasons during Pinochet's regime, and the Valech Report found that at least 30,000 people were tortured by the government for political reasons.
Pinochet's attorneys, headed by Pablo Rodríguez Grez (former leader of the far-right group Fatherland and Liberty), argued that he was entitled to immunity from prosecution first as a former head of state, then under the 1978 amnesty law passed by the military junta. They also claimed that his alleged poor health made him unfit to stand trial. A succession of judgments by various Courts of Appeal, the Supreme Court, medical experts, etc., led to Pinochet's subsequent house arrest and release, before he died on 10 December 2006, just after having been again put under house arrest on 28 November 2006 in the Caravan of Death case.[1]
At the time of his death in 2006, Pinochet had been implicated in over 300 criminal charges for many human rights violations,[2] including the Caravan of Death case (case closed in July 2002 by the Supreme Court of Chile, but re-opened in 2007 following new medical advice), Carlos Prats's assassination (case closed on 1 April 2005), Operation Condor (case closed on 17 June 2005), Operation Colombo, the Villa Grimaldi, Carmelo Soria, Calle Conferencia, Antonio Llidó and Eugenio Berrios cases, tax evasion and passport forgery.[2][3]
- ^ Procesan a Pinochet y ordenan su arresto por los secuestros y homicidios de la "Caravana de la Muerte" Archived 5 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine, 20minutos, 28 November 2006.
- ^ a b Más de 300 querellas abiertas Archived 1 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine, El Periódico, URL accessed on 10 September 2007 (in Spanish)
- ^ Descubren 9.000 kilos de oro ocultados por Pinochet en un banco de Hong Kong Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, EFE, published by 20 Minutos, 25 October 2006 (in Spanish)