Judges Weigh Pinochet’s Fate After Hearing Final Arguments

Britain’s highest court wrapped up hearings Thursday to determine Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s fate, with opposing lawyers contending that human rights law would be reduced to a “meek little mouse” if he goes free.

The judges from the House of Lords said they would begin private considerations and announce “in due course” their ruling on whether the former Chilean dictator is immune from prosecution for crimes against humanity that he is accused of committing during his 17-year rule.

Lawyers for Spain, which is seeking Pinochet’s extradition, and for human rights groups insisted that the U.N. Convention Against Torture allows any country to try another nation’s officials for such crimes.

“This is a case about conduct that has been accepted throughout by everyone concerned as fundamentally unlawful,” said Christopher Greenwood, a lawyer for Spain.

The torture convention permits any nation to claim jurisdiction “because a state whose officials behave in this way could not be trusted to deal with this matter on its own,” Greenwood said in arguments before the Law Lords.

Allowing Pinochet to evade the torture convention, Greenwood said, would turn the law into a “meek little mouse.”

“We’ll take time to consider this,” Lord Chief Justice Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson announced as 12 days of intricate legal arguments came to an end.

Pinochet, 83, was arrested Oct. 16 in London on a Spanish warrant alleging that he ordered killings, torture and hostage-taking during his rule.