Access to Pinochet Health Findings Sought in Court

Human rights groups joined Belgium in launching a court challenge Tuesday to prevent Britain’s top law enforcement official from releasing former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on grounds of ill health.

Their challenges contend that Home Secretary Jack Straw must allow an independent examination of the medical evidence that he says has left him inclined to block the 84-year-old general’s extradition to Spain to face charges alleging human rights abuses.

The doctors’ reports--compiled after physicians spent nearly seven hours with Pinochet this month--have not been released due to patient confidentiality.

“Of particular concern is whether the evidence shows not merely that Pinochet is a sick, old man--a fate to which many of Pinochet’s victims would have gladly aspired--but, as British law requires, that he is incapable of understanding the proceedings against him and of assisting in his own defense,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, one of six groups bringing the legal challenge.

The High Court will hear initial arguments today. A formal hearing, if granted, probably would be held next week.

Straw has said that he will not issue his final ruling on extradition until the judicial review of his actions is complete.

He initially had been expected to rule this week, after Spain, human rights groups and the three other nations seeking Pinochet’s extradition--Belgium, France and Switzerland--were given until Monday to file final arguments with him.

Pinochet was arrested 15 months ago on a Spanish warrant while recuperating from back surgery in a London hospital. He is accused of ordering the torture of political opponents during his 1973-90 dictatorship.

Pinochet, under house arrest in a rented mansion southwest of London, has diabetes, wears a pacemaker and suffered two small strokes last fall.