CHILE: Pinochet loses immunity

Pinochet loses immunity

In an extraordinary session of Chile's Court of Appeals on May 23, the court voted 13 to nine to strip former dictator General Augusto Pinochet of the immunity he enjoys as a senator. The ruling will allow Juan Guzman, the special magistrate investigating more than 100 complaints filed against Pinochet, to proceed with 19 cases involving people who disappeared in the "Caravan of Death" during the two months after Pinochet seized power in a September 1973 coup.

The courts have indicated that disappearances count as ongoing kidnapping cases and are therefore not covered by an existing amnesty for crimes committed during the first five years of the dictatorship. Military leaders have responded by helping Guzman and human rights lawyers trace the remains of some of the disappeared.

After the official announcement of the Court of Appeals' ruling, Pinochet's lawyers will have five days to appeal to the Supreme Court.

From GLW issue 408