British court ready to rule on Pinochet extradition request

ALSO: UK judges deciding Pinochet case are a mixed bunch

March 23, 1999
Web posted at: 11:26 a.m. EST (1626 GMT)

LONDON (CNN) -- Britain's highest court will decide Wednesday whether former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet can be extradited to Spain to stand trial for torture, murder and hostage-taking during his 17-year rule in the South American country.

The Law Lords heard 12 days of testimony in late January and early February as attorneys argued the 83-year-old general's fate.

Pinochet led a coup in 1973 that toppled popular Marxist president Salvador Allende. Spanish and human rights attorneys argued before the seven-member court that his rule was characterized by "the most hideous imaginable" methods of torture.

Pinochet's attorneys countered that he was immune from prosecution under British law as a former head of state.

This is the second time the Law Lords have heard the case.

The first ended in November with a decision against Pinochet. But the court set aside its own ruling in December -- noting that one of the original judges had ties to Amnesty International that could represent a conflict of interest -- and agreed to a new hearing.

Under arrest for five months

Pinochet was arrested October 16 while in a London hospital recovering from back surgery. He was charged on an extradition warrant filed by Spain for the alleged murder of Spaniards during his Chilean rule.

Other countries clamored for Pinochet's extradition, joined by human rights groups that have long decried the Chilean dictator's record of alleged abuses. His crimes, they said, were so heinous that they eliminated immunity as an option.

Some attorneys also claimed that Pinochet tortured his political enemies before he became Chile's head of state in 1973.

A Chilean report says that more than 30,000 people were killed or disappeared at the hands of Pinochet's secret police between 1973 and 1990, when his popular support had eroded and he returned the nation to democracy. Two years earlier, Chile had signed an international anti-torture treaty.

Pinochet was granted a seat in the Chilean Senate as part of his agreement to step down as leader of the country.

Pinochet will be flown back to his home country aboard a Chilean air force Boeing 707 if the Law Lords rule in his favor.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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