General Augusto Pinochet's widow, children and former associates were released on bail in Chile two days after their arrest on corruption charges.
The two sons and three daughters of the late dictator walked out of prison on Saturday and went straight to the Santiago Military Hospital to see their mother, Lucia Hiriart, who has been treated there for high blood pressure since her arrest.
On Thursday, Judge Carlos Cerda order their arrests on charges of misuse of state funds during the 1973 to 1990 dictatorship.
PHOTO: EPA
The charges stem from the former dictator's multimillion dollar bank accounts in the US and elsewhere. The former dictator was under indictment in the case when he died last December at age 91.
Pinochet and his associates have steadfastly denied any wrongdoing in connection with the bank accounts, saying the funds were legitimate savings and investments, plus donations Pinochet received.
Judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes said a three member-panel unanimously agreed to allow 23 relatives and associates of the former dictator to be freed and set bail ranging from US$200 to US$590. In addition to Pinochet's relatives, the indicted included 17 former aides, with six retired army generals among them.
Pinochet's son Augusto repeated statements suggesting the case against the family is politically motivated.
Leaving prison, he challenged Chileans to "judge for yourselves."
"This is my personal reasoning: This country should think about what's going on," he said.
The family lawyer, Pablo Rodriguez, called the legal accusations "unprecedented, open political persecution."
The case exposed the divisions Pinochet still inspires among Chileans. Fights between supporters and foes of Pinochet broke out repeatedly in front of the different facilities where the indicted were being held.
At least 3,197 dissidents were killed or disappeared during the dictatorship, according to an official report. More than 1,000 of them remain unaccounted for.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS