Pinochet loses immunity in 'Operation Condor' case

Chile's Supreme Court yesterday stripped former dictator Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution in a notorious human rights case, raising hopes of victims that he may finally face trial for abuses during his 17-year regime.

The ruling upheld a lower court decision in May that removed the immunity granted Pinochet as a former head of state.

The lower court said the retired general, 88, could be charged in connection with the disappearance of 19 leftists in the mid-1970s as part of "Operation Condor", a joint effort by South America's military dictators to help each other wipe out dissidents.

"The previous sentence... of the appeals court... is upheld," court reporter Juan Cristobal Mera told journalists at Santiago's main courthouse. He said nine judges voted in favor and eight dissented.

The ruling is the latest in six years of back-and-forth court decisions in hundreds of human rights cases that accuse Pinochet of ordering secret police to kidnap, torture and kill leftists.

Pinochet took power in a coup in 1973 and at least 3,000 leftists were killed during his rule. He has been out of office since 1990, but has remained untouchable in the courts.

Human rights lawyers say the odds are now against Pinochet as public opinion has turned further against him after the recent discovery of secret, multimillion-dollar accounts, leading to new accusations of fraud and embezzlement.

"We're happy and we're going to keep pushing," said Lorena Pizarro, president of the association of relatives of the disappeared.

Operation Condor was the military code name for an intelligence-sharing network between Chile and other South American dictatorships in the 1970s that rights groups say aimed to eliminate dissidents throughout the region.

Pinochet's lawyers told the Supreme Court in hearings this week that the cross-border collaboration in Operation Condor was comparable to current anti-terrorism efforts in Europe since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.