September 29, 1999
Web posted at: 9:32 p.m. EDT (0132 GMT)

In this story: Decision expected by early October Wife angry at suggestion of suicide RELATED STORIES, SITES

LONDON (CNN) -- Lawyers for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet claimed Wednesday that the same alleged torture techniques used by police under his regime had been employed by Britain in Northern Ireland.

Defense lawyers wound up their case on the third day of extradition proceedings against Pinochet by claiming that European courts had already ruled the techniques did not constitute torture.

"What we are seeing is a farce that has been going on for months," said Fernando Barros, a lawyer and outspoken Pinochet activist, in an interview with Radio Agricultura.

"This is a direct attack by the British government against Pinochet, who has not been found guilty of crimes by any court in the world," said Barros.

British Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair, had on Tuesday accused the opposition Conservative Party of pro-Pinochet bias.

The 83-year-old ex-dictator remains under house arrest near London. He was arrested at the request of Spain, which wants to try him on torture charges stemming from his totalitarian rule that lasted from 1973 until 1990.

The hearing enters its fourth and possibly last day on Thursday, giving Pinochet's lawyers one final opportunity to refute the charges. A decision is expected in early October.

Pinochet has been in very poor health, suffering from a variety of ailments, including a painful state of depression, said his wife, Lucia, at a reception organized by the Chilean Reconciliation Committee.

"He is very, very depressed. After one year of imprisonment, injustice and kidnap, being a political prisoner ... given the pressure, his health is not good," she said.

Angry shouts disrupted a news conference when a reporter asked Pinochet's wife if his mounting troubles had led him to consider taking his own life.

"Get out, you bastard," shouted Pinochet supporters, some leaping to their feet and waving their fists.

The former dictator's wife denied angrily and emphatically that Pinochet is suicidal.

"For someone to consider suicide, he would first have to be in such a painful state of depression that -- thanks to God - - my husband has not yet fallen," she said.

She said Pinochet had received psychiatric care, " ... so he has not been able to come to that point. The last thing a soldier would do is kill himself," she added.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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