Cheers, tears await Pinochet’s return

Human rights groups support Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon’s attempts to put Pinochet on trial for torture, but are now pressing for his prosecution at home after British Home Secretary Jack Straw refused to extradite him to Spain. The Chilean government says more than 3,000 people died under Pinochet’s rule, and rights groups say as many as 500,000 were tortured.Even as Pinochet was on his way home, a new lawsuit was filed against him by the relatives of a man who “disappeared” after being seized in 1974 by Pinochet’s notorious political police. This latest case brings to 60 the number of lawsuits Pinochet faces in Chile.

Silva said her group, which has filed a class action suit against Pinochet, would join other plaintiffs in requesting that the country’s highest court lift the immunity from prosecution Pinochet enjoys as a senator for life. But she remained skeptical about the chances of ever seeing the ex-dictator in court, saying that the courts’ hands were tied by laws passed under Pinochet to protect the regime’s leadership.

President Eduardo Frei on Thursday pledged the justice system would be fully independent in dealing with Pinochet. “It will be the Chilean courts that will decide whether Senator Pinochet is responsible for the crimes imputed to him,” Frei said in a nationally broadcast speech. Jacqueline Pinochet, one of the ex-strongman’s daughters, said in a television interview that her father would be willing to stand trial.

In Washington, the US ambassador at large for war crimes issues, David Scheffer, said: “We have a high degree of confidence in the capabilities of the Chilean government and court systems to proceed ahead” in handling the Pinochet case. In Lisbon, European Union foreign policy maker Javier Solana added his support to calls for Chile to prosecute Pinochet, commenting, “I understand the frustration of the victims’ families in Chile”.

Judge Juan Guzman, who has been appointed to deal with the lawsuits against Pinochet in Chile, has said he would seek to interview the ex-strongman and would also ask that he undergo medical tests to assess whether he is mentally fit for trial. Under Chilean law, poor physical health, cited by Britain in freeing Pinochet, would not prevent a trial from going ahead.