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Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet
| Augusto Pinochet | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte 25 November 1915 Valparaíso, Chile |
| Died | 10 December 2006 (aged 91) Santiago, Chile at the Military Hospital |
| Cause | heart attack |
| Charge(s) | Caravan of Death Assassination of Carlos Prats Operation Condor Operation Colombo Villa Grimaldi Carmelo Soria Calle Conferencia Antonio Llidó Eugenio Berrios tax evasion passport forgery |
| Conviction status | Deceased |
| Occupation | President of Chile |
| Spouse | Lucía Hiriart |
| Parents | Augusto Pinochet Vera Avelina Ugarte Martínez |
| Children | Augusto Osvaldo Marco Antonio Inés Lucía María Verónica Jacqueline Marie |
General Augusto Pinochet was indicted for human rights violations committed in his native Chile by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón on 10 October 1998. He was arrested in London six days later and finally released by the British government in March 2000. Authorized to freely return to Chile, Pinochet was there first indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia, and charged with a number of crimes, before dying on 10 December 2006, without having been convicted in any case. His arrest in London made the front-page of newspapers worldwide as not only did it involve the head of the military dictatorship that ruled Chile between 1973 and 1990, but it was the first time that several European judges applied the principle of universal jurisdiction, declaring themselves competent to judge crimes committed by former heads of state, despite local amnesty laws.
Pinochet came to power in a violent 11 September 1973 coup which deposed Socialist President Salvador Allende. His 17-year regime was responsible for numerous human rights violations, a number of which committed as part of Operation Condor, an illegal effort to suppress 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, theillegal drug trade and illegal arms trade. The Rettig Report found that at least 2,279 persons were conclusively murdered by the Chilean government for political reasons during Pinochet's regime, and the Valech Report found that at least 30,000 persons 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 toimmunity from prosecution first as a former head of state, then under the 1978 amnesty law passed by the military junta. They furthermore 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 successive house arrest and liberation, before he finally died on 10 December 2006, just after having been again put under house arrest on 28 November 2006 in the Caravan of Deathcase.[1]
By the time of his death, Pinochet had been implicated in over 300 criminal charges for numerous 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 expertises), Carlos Prats'sassassination (case closed on 1 April 2005), Operation Condor (case closed on 17 June 2005), Operation Colombo, Villa Grimaldi case, Carmelo Soria case, Calle Conferencia case, Antonio Llidó case, Eugenio Berrioscase, tax evasion and passport forgery.[2][3]
[editArrest in London
]Timeline
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In 1998, Pinochet, who still had much influence in Chile, travelled to the United Kingdom for medical treatment — allegations have been made that he was also there to negotiate arms contracts.[4] While there, he was arrested on 17 October 1998 under an international arrest warrant issued by judge Baltasar Garzón of Spain,[5] and was placed underhouse arrest: initially in the clinic where he had just undergone back surgery, and later in a rented house. The charges included 94 counts of torture of Spanish citizens, the 1975 assassination of Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria, and one count of conspiracy to commit torture — allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, including since the beginning of his rule, but never acted upon. Still struggling with the conditions set by the difficulttransition to democracy, the Chilean government of the Concertación, then headed by President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, opposed his arrest, extradition to Spain, and trial.
There was a hard-fought 16-month legal battle in the House of Lords, the then highest court of the United Kingdom.[6]Pinochet claimed immunity from prosecution as a former head of state under the State Immunity Act 1978. This was rejected, as the Lords decreed that some international crimes, such as torture, could not be protected by former head-of-state immunity.[7] The Lords, however, decided in March 1999 that Pinochet could only be prosecuted for crimes committed after 1988, the date during which the United Kingdom implemented legislation for the United Nations Convention Against Torture in the Criminal Justice Act 1988.[7][8] This invalidated most, but not all, of the charges against him; but the outcome was that extradition could proceed. In April 1999, former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former US President George H. W. Bush called upon the British government to release Pinochet.[9][10]They urged that Pinochet be allowed to return to his homeland rather than be forced to go to Spain. On the other hand,United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Mary Robinson, hailed the Lords' ruling, declaring that it was a clear endorsement that torture is an international crime subject to universal jurisdiction.[8] Furthermore, Amnesty International and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture demanded his extradition to Spain.[11]Finally, in protest against Spain's action, Chile withdrew for a time its ambassador from Madrid.[12]