Pinochet may stand trial for killings, Chile high court rules News
Pinochet may stand trial for killings, Chile high court rules

[JURIST] Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] can stand trial for an alleged campaign of abduction and murder of political opponents during his leadership, Chile's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The ruling was the third by the court stripping Pinochet of the immunity from prosecution customarily granted to former presidents of the country. Prosecutors investigating Operation Colombo, a government campaign in the mid-1970s against leftists, have sought to charge the 89-year-old former leader with the murder of 15 political opponents. An appeals court ruled earlier this summer that Pinochet could be prosecuted, but he appealed the ruling. Although two other major human rights cases [BBC timeline] were brought against Pinochet, both stalled when courts ruled that he was not healthy enough to stand trial. Reuters has more.

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