Chile Court Bars Assassination Probe
The Supreme Court of Chile has ruled against reopening an investigation into the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier, a former foreign minister in the leftist government of Salvador Allende.
The ruling, published Friday, dismissed evidence provided by a former Chilean intelligence agent, Maj. Armando Fernandez, who fled to the United States last year and pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the murder, which occurred in Washington.
Letelier’s sister called the decision “arbitrary” and said family lawyers plan to provide new evidence to reopen the case.
Letelier and his American assistant were killed by a bomb, allegedly planted by Chilean agents, under the exiled diplomat’s car. Michael Townley, an American working for Chilean secret police, was convicted in Washington in 1978 of planting the bomb.
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