Court Throws Out Pinochet Indictment

The Chilean Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out an indictment issued this month against former dictator Augusto Pinochet, but the court also ordered a special magistrate to interrogate the retired general within 20 days.

As a result, the 4-1 decision by a panel of the court doesn’t prevent the prosecution of Pinochet, 85, who could be indicted anew after he is interrogated. Instead, the ruling was an incremental development in a slow-moving case in which both sides again expressed reasons for hope.

Pinochet’s defense was encouraged Wednesday because the Supreme Court panel agreed with an appellate court that had blocked the indictment issued by special magistrate Juan Guzman, who had also ordered Pinochet placed under house arrest.

Both courts found that Guzman should have conducted an interrogation first in his investigation of Pinochet for murders, kidnappings and other crimes committed by an army death squad after his 1973 coup.

Guzman, who reportedly speeded up the indictment to fend off an attempt by political rivals to remove him from the case, argued that he had already questioned Pinochet in writing in 1999 while the former dictator was under house arrest in Britain facing an extradition attempt by Spain.

Pinochet’s lawyers will now focus their efforts on a bid to conduct psychological tests of their ailing client as soon as possible. If the tests show that Pinochet is mentally unfit to stand trial, his lawyers could definitively thwart a prosecution. This year, British authorities released Pinochet, who has suffered several strokes and other ailments, and sent him back to Chile on grounds of ill health.

“We are interested in doing the medical tests even tomorrow, if that’s possible, so the appropriate decisions can be made,” said Pablo Rodriguez, who heads the defense team.

But it’s up to Guzman to schedule the interrogation and the psychological tests. Lawyers for the victims in the death squad case said they’re confident that Pinochet will be speedily questioned and indicted before the tests are complete.

“All the conditions are present for Pinochet to be prosecuted within the space of 21 days,” said Hugo Gutierrez, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “Pinochet is on the threshold of being prosecuted. This victory for Pinochet’s defense is a victory with a taste of defeat.”

The psychological tests are a legal battleground as well. The Pinochet camp won another victory this week when his lawyers convinced an appellate court that the defendant should be examined in a military hospital. The prosecution wanted to use a civilian hospital, arguing that the military hospital wouldn’t be neutral ground.

Meanwhile, the chances of a prosecution by U.S. authorities remain remote but not impossible. The U.S. Justice Department has been analyzing the prospects of charging Pinochet in the 1976 car-bomb death of a Chilean exile leader and his assistant, a U.S. citizen, in Washington, D.C.

A group of U.S. congressional representatives wrote a letter this week urging Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to file charges against Pinochet. The legislators said the evidence shows that the attack, for which top Chilean secret police officials were convicted in Chile, was ordered by the dictator himself.