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Arrest and trial in Britain
Main article: Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trial
Pinochet's regime has been accused of systematic and widespread human rights violations both in Chile and abroad, including mass-murder, torture, kidnapping, illegal detention, and censorship of the press.[citation needed]. At the end of his life, he was also accused of using his position to enrich himself and his family — a facet previously unknown to the general public, as he had always presented a rather modest lifestyle.[citation needed]
On October 17, 1998, while visiting the United Kingdom for medical treatment, Pinochet was arrested on a Spanish provisional warrant for the murder in Chile of Spanish citizens while he was president.[27] Five days later, Pinochet was served with a second provisional arrest warrant from the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, charging him with systematic torture, murder, illegal detention, and forced disappearances.[citation needed] The case was a watershed event in judicial history, as it was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction (See Augusto Pinochet's arrest and trial:The principle of universal jurisdiction for further details.)[citation needed]
After having been placed under house arrest in Britain and initiating a judicial battle, he was eventually released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial [28].
[edit] Return to Chile
Henceforth, on 3 March 2000, Pinochet returned to Chile. His first act when landing in Santiago de Chile's airport was to triumphally get up from his chair to the acclaim of his supporters[29][30]. He was first greeted by his successor as head of the Chilean armed forces, General Ricardo Izurieta [30]. President Ricardo Lagos, who had just sworn in on March 11, said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.[31]
In March 2000, the Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president," which granted its owner immunity from prosecution and guaranteed him a financial allowance. In exchange, it required him to resign from his seat of senator-for-life. 111 legislators voted for, and 29 (mostly, if not all, from the Left) against [32].
Nevertheless, judge Juan Guzmán Tapia (who had been a supporter of Pinochet during his government) initiated a procedure against him, requesting the suspension of his parliamentary immunity three days after his return to Chile.[citation needed] Pinochet's legal team was headed by Pablo Rodríguez, the former leader of the rightist paramilitary movement Patria y Libertad (Fatherland and Liberty).[citation needed]
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Juan Guzmán's request on August 2000, and Pinochet was indicted on December 1, 2000 for the "kidnapping" of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case — Guzmán advanced the charge of "kidnapping" as they were officially "disappeared:" even though they were all most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of "homicide" difficult [33].
However, in July 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment in the various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons (vascular dementia). The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember, while others (including several physicians) claimed that he was only physically affected but retained all control of his faculties. The same year, the prosecuting attorney Hugo Guttierez, in charge of the Caravan of Death case, declared that "Our country has the degree of justice that the political transition permits us to have.[34]"
Pinochet resigned from his senatorial seat shortly after the Supreme Court's July 2002 ruling. In May 2004, the Supreme Court overturned its precedent decision, and ruled that he was capable of standing trial. In arguing their case, the prosecution presented a recent TV interview Pinochet had given for a Miami-based television network, which raised doubts about his alleged mental incapacity. He was charged with several crimes in December of that year (including the 1974 assassination of General Prats, the Operation Colombo case (119 dead), etc., and again placed under house arrest, on the eve of his 90th birthday. Questioned by his judges in order to know if, as President, he was the direct head of DINA, he answered: "I don't remember, but it's not true. And if it were true, I don't remember." [35]
In January 2005, the Chilean Army accepted institutional responsibility for past human rights abuses[36]. Other institutions also accepted that abuses took place, but blamed them on individuals, rather than official policy. Lucía Pinochet Hiriart, Augusto Pinochet's eldest daughter, said the use of torture during his 1973–90 regime was "barbaric and without justification", after seeing the Valech Report[citation needed]. Most of the torture was carried out at secret prison facilities like Villa Grimaldi, Chacabuco, and Pisagua.[citation needed]
The same year, the US revealed that Pinochet had a large network of secret bank accounts abroad (See below).[citation needed] On November 22, 2005, he was indicted on tax evasion charges and placed again under house arrest for an alleged $27 million hidden in secret accounts under false names. That figure was later reduced to $11 million.[citation needed]
Furthermore, Pinochet was indicted in 2006 for kidnappings and tortures at Villa Grimaldi detention center by the judge Alejandro Madrid (Guzmán's successor) [37], as well as for the 1995 assassination of the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios (himself involved in the Letelier case) [38]. Berrios, who had worked with Michael Townley, had produced sarin gas, anthrax and botulism in the Bacteriological War Army Laboratory for Pinochet (used against political opponents). The DINA biochemist was also alleged of having created black cocaine, which Pinochet then sold in Europe and the United States [39]. The money for the drug trade was allegedly put directly into Pinochet's bank accounts [40]. Pinochet's son Marco Antonio, who had been accused of participating in the drug trade, has denied claims of drug trafficking in his father's administration and announced a lawsuit for libel against Manuel Contreras, who had also claimed Pinochet sold cocaine[41].
On October 30, 2006, Pinochet was charged with 36 counts of kidnapping, 23 counts of torture, and one of murder for the torture and disappearance of opponents of his regime at Villa Grimaldi.[citation needed]
On November 25, 2006, Pinochet marked his 91st birthday by having his wife read a statement written by him, and read to his admirers present for his birthday: "I assume the political responsibility of all that has been done."[42] Two days later, he was again ordered to house arrest for the kidnapping and murder of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende who were arrested the day of the 1973 coup and executed by a firing squad during the Caravan of Death episode.[43][44]
However, Pinochet died a few days later, on 10 December, 2006, without having been convicted of any of the many serious crimes he was accused of.
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