The chief justice of Chile's Supreme Court said Wednesday the court would announce by early next week its decision on whether to uphold the stripping of former dictator Augusto Pinochet's immunity.
Local media reported Wednesday that the 20-member high court had in fact already decided to uphold a lower court ruling, exposing the general to standing trial for abuses committed during his regime, but chief justice Hernan Alvarez refused to confirm or deny the reports.
"I did say at first that (there would be an announcement) on Friday ... but I think it is more likely that this will be set out on Tuesday," Alvarez told reporters.
Although at the close of Tuesday's hearing, several court members said a decision had been postponed, headlines Wednesday announced with certainty that Pinochet definitively had been stripped of his immunity during the court's four-hour meeting.
The high court must either allow or overturn the decision of a lower court lifting the immunity Pinochet enjoyed as "senator for life," after his almost 17-year presidency.
The high court has already seconded a decision of the Santiago Appellate Court when it ruled out new medical tests for Pinochet. His lawyers had requested the tests in a bid to prove their client was too weak to stand trial.
Pinochet's foes have spent years trying to have him stand trial. Their bid began in earnest in October 1998 when he was put under house arrest in London, under an extradition request from Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon.
Britain ruled out extraditing Pinochet to Spain, deeming him too feeble to stand trial. After 503 days' detention in Britain, he returned in Satiago in March.
Relatives of some of the more than 3,000 people who were killed or went missing during Pinochet's dictatorship, which ended in 1990, have filed 154 lawsuits against the general, still a highly divisive figure in Chile a decade on.
The commander of Chile's air force, General Patricio Rios, said Wednesday that any confirmation that Pinochet's immunity is lifted could have a negative impact on the roundtable dialogue between the government, human rights lawyers and the military, begun in late 1999.
If Pinochet's immunity is lifted, "The situations that might occur in this country might affect the kind of confidence we are trying to create" in the dialogue, said Rios -- SANTIAGO (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
