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Former Chilean dictator arrested

Lorena Pizarro, center, head of an association of the relatives of people who disappeared during former dictator Augusto Pinochet's rule, with Claudio Ibarra, left, and Gaby Rivera, right, celebrate on Wednesday outside the Supreme Court in Santiago on news of Pinochet's indictment. PHOTO: EPA

Former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet was placed under house arrest on Wednesday to face charges including tax evasion and misuse of public funds, the latest attempt to bring the former military dictator to justice.

Pinochet, 89, has avoided trial for the killings and disappearances of political opponents during his 1973-1990 regime, and Wednesday's charges stem from allegations that he has kept up to US$27 million in secret foreign bank accounts.

It is the third time since 2001 that Pinochet was charged and arrested. His frail health has derailed human rights cases until now, but court-appointed experts recently found him mentally fit to stand trial for the 1975 killings of 119 leftist anti-regime activists, known as Operation Colombo.

Thousands of people were arrested during the Pinochet years. More than 2,000 "disappeared" and at least 30,000 were tortured in prison, according to a government-sponsored committee that gathered testimony from victims last year.

Investigating judge Carlos Cerda, who has the powers of a prosecutor, charged Pinochet with evading US$2.4 million in taxes between 1980 and 2004, holding four false passports and withholding information in sworn testimony.

A spokeswoman for families of missing prisoners hailed the indictment for economic crimes, but said Pinochet should also face justice in the human rights cases.

"We hope that he will also be [charged] for the crimes of genocide committed during the 17 years of dictatorship," Lorena Pizarro said.

Operation Colombo was allegedly carried out by Pinochet's secret police with the aim of wiping out leftist opponents in Chile. Many activists were arrested and never seen again, and Pinochet's military commanders tried to trick the public into believing that the missing and dead were killed in infighting among left-wing groups.

Pinochet, who suffered a minor stroke in June, was named in the case because he was the top authority in Chile at the time.

The Supreme Court decision in September that lifted his immunity from prosecution in the Colombo case marked a shift in attempts to prosecute Pinochet.

When he was first charged in the killings of jailed opponents of the military regime, Pinochet was arrested in 2001 after returning to Chile from detention in London. But the case collapsed when he was found mentally unfit to stand trial.

For the same reason, he avoided trial this year for Operation Condor, a cross-border operation to track down and kill opponents of the regime.

But last May, the man who led the dreaded National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) secret police under Pinochet implicated the former dictator in the disappearance of 580 political prisoners.

General ManuelContreras, who is serving a 12-year prison term, said that orders for crimes committed under the regime came from the junta, headed by Pinochet.
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