4 Countries Fault Report on Pinochet

Britain received challenges from France, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium on Tuesday to a medical report that said former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was unfit to stand trial in Europe on torture charges.

Home Secretary Jack Straw promised a speedy decision on whether to send the 84-year-old general for trial or free him from 16 months of house arrest at an exclusive estate near London.

All four countries said they disagreed with the report drawn up by a panel of independent British doctors, whose findings prompted Straw to say he was inclined to send Pinochet back to Chile.

Spanish doctors who reviewed the report contended that Pinochet was healthy enough to face trial, according to court documents released in Spain.

“We consider that the medical examination carried out in England is limited and partial, and lacks a psychiatric and pyschopathological evaluation,” said the eight doctors, all departmental heads in Spanish public hospitals.

“There is no evaluation of [Pinochet’s] medication although . . . the patient takes 11 different medicines. Thus there are justifiable reasons, on the basis of pharmacology and side effects, to conclude that the evaluation is unreliable.”

The documents also show that the Spanish judge who secured Pinochet’s arrest in London had asked Straw--who had set Tuesday as the deadline for objections from Pinochet’s pursuers--to delay his decision until next month.

The Spanish press has said that leaks of the report show the British doctors found Pinochet was brain-damaged.

France said it had asked the British government for further medical examinations of Pinochet.

A Belgian judge concluded that Pinochet was fit to stand trial and said he had asked Britain for further medical tests. Switzerland said it was still pressing its extradition demand.

Swiss police authorities said they believed that Pinochet’s health was not a good enough reason to refuse his extradition.

The Spanish daily El Pais cited British Home Office sources on Tuesday as saying that Straw’s decision would be “identical”--even after the latest legal moves--to his previous ruling that the medical report showed Pinochet was too ill to stand trial.

Straw is expected to give interested parties 24 hours’ notice before making a statement in Parliament.