Pinochet victims make case for financial crimes

Opponents of former dictator Augusto Pinochet yesterday filed formal accusations against him alleging financial crimes after the disclosure of secret bank accounts opened for him in the United States.

The discovery of the accounts sparked new hope among human rights activists of prosecuting Pinochet, who has escaped trial despite some 300 charges against him for human rights abuses when he ruled Chile between 1973 and 1990.

The accusations were lodged after a US Senate investigation into the Washington-based Riggs Bank found secret accounts opened for Pinochet that held some $4 million to $8 million between 1994 and 2002.

Carmen Hertz, a human rights lawyer whose husband was executed by Pinochet's military after his 1973 coup, filed a report with the Santiago Appeals Court denouncing Pinochet for committing fraud, misappropriation of funds and bribery.

"Pinochet's actions have to be investigated in Chile because he transferred money up until at least the year 2003 in a lucid manner and in contradiction with all the latest verdicts by Chilean courts that say he is crazy or demented," Mr Hertz told reporters.

The court immediately assigned a special judge to look into the origin of the funds held in the Riggs accounts.

Pinochet is now 88 and infirm. About 3,000 people were killed by his anti-communist security forces or disappeared during his rule.

His family denies any allegations of corruption. A Spanish court ordered an embargo of Pinochet's accounts after he was arrested in London in 1998 on charges of crimes against humanity but the US accounts were not found at the time.