Pinochet unfit to stand trial: Britain

Pinochet unfit to stand trial: Britain
Agence France Presse

LONDON, JAN 12: Britain intends to release former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet after medical tests showed he was unfit to stand trial, the Home Office announced late on Tuesday. In a statement, it said Home Secretary Jack Straw was ``minded ... to take the view that no purpose would be served by continuing the present extradition proceedings'' to Spain, where authorities want Pinochet in court on charges of human rights abuses during his dictatorship.

A final decision will depend, however, on representations from the Spanish and Chilean authorities, several human rights groups and from Belgium, France and Switzerland, which all have outstanding requests for his extradition. The former dictator has been detained since his arrest at a private London hospital at Spain's request on October 16, 1998. The Home Office said that the ``unequivocal and unanimous'' conclusion of a four-strong medical team who examined Pinochet on January 5 was that he was ``at present unfit to stand trial, and that no change to that position can be expected''.

``In the circumstances, the Secretary of State is minded, subject to any representations he may receive, to take the view that no purpose would be served by continuing the present extradition proceedings and that he should therefore decide not to extradite Senator Pinochet.'' Pinochet underwent seven hours of medical tests last week at a hospital in northwest London to assess his fitness to be extradited.

The tests were ordered by the Home Office after an appeal by the Chilean government to allow the 84-year-old home on humanitarian grounds. Last October, magistrates in London ruled that he should be extradited. He was excused attendance at that hearing on the grounds of ill health. That had been on the basis of medical reports from Pinochet's own doctors, but Tuesday's announcement followed tests by independent doctors appointed by the Home Office.

The Home Office statement said Spain and Chile were being informed of the latest developments and were being asked to make representations. Similar letters are being sent to France, Belgium and Switzerland, and to human rights groups such as Amnesty International, the Redress Trust and the Association of Disappeared Persons in Chile. Representations must be submitted within two weeks, and Straw will make a statement to parliament when the case is finally concluded.

It also said Pinochet had refused a request for the medical report to be sent to the countries requesting his extradition. Meanwhile in Santiago, with just a few days to go before Sunday's run-off presidential election in Chile, Britain dropped a bombshell on the campaign when it announced it intended to free ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet on health grounds.

Sunday's vote will pit a right-wing former Pinochet supporter against a moderate leftist who played a key role in bringing down the 17-year military dictatorship in 1990. Ironically, both arch-conservative Joaquin Lavin, 46, and Socialist Ricardo Lagos, 61, had tried keep the controversial Pinochet issue out of their campaigns, concentrating instead on promises of jobs and economic improvement.