Judge searches Pinochet's office

[seemslikeadream]

Published January 7, 2005

SANTIAGO -- A judge backed by eight detectives searched the office of Gen. Augusto Pinochet on Thursday as the former dictator remained under house arrest west of Santiago on charges of kidnapping and homicide.

The search was part of a separate investigation by Judge Sergio Munoz of multimillion-dollar accounts kept by the retired general at Riggs Bank in Washington.

The judge did not comment, but Chilean media reported that he seized some documents.

Pinochet's chief lawyer, Pablo Rodriguez, called the raid "illegal" because his client has immunity from prosecution as a former president.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0501070286jan07,1,2838687.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true


Believers in justice are finally closing in on Augusto Pinochet
By Jorge Arrate

Friday, Jan 07, 2005,Page 9
The investigation into the death in 1980 of former Chilean president Frei Montalva, the principal opponent of the dictatorship, has advanced but needs to be pursued vigorously in the courts. Frei's death implicates the repressive apparatus that Pinochet and Manuel Contreras, his "right hand," managed in lockstep.

Operation Condor, the Riggs, Frei, and Prats affairs, and many other crimes are documented in the recent report on torture and political imprisonment written by the special commission established by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos. Arriving 30 years after the military coup that brought Pinochet to power, the report has both unsettled and empowered Chileans.

Seemingly invincible for many years, the former dictator's final collapse began in London in October 1998, when Spanish law-yers, Judge Baltasar Garzon of Spain and Scotland Yard brought charges against him. Pinochet responded with arrogance, provoking a huge sense of shame for Chile's young democracy. Pinochet's ability to evade the courts cast a dark shadow over the country's military institutions and made many Chileans wonder how far the country had really gone in its transition to democracy.

Without Judge Garzon's insistence on pursuing the matter, prosecuting Pinochet would have been nearly impossible, owing to powerful opposition from wealthy and media-savvy Chileans. The Chilean government's excessive caution -- rooted in fear of instability that could affect the basic rights regained after the dictatorship -- also helped Pinochet evade justice. Indeed, Chile's courts could not have garnered the necessary public support to free them from their inertia without the push Garzon provided.

It would also have been impossible to consider bringing Pinochet to justice without the extraordinarily important human-rights struggles waged by victims' organizations, victims' families and jurists who, against all the odds, remained true to their cause for decades. Few organizations in Chile have been as capable or as successful as those dedicated to human rights. Because of the tenacity and passion of ordinary Chileans demanding that the state fulfill its mandate to protect their human rights, Pinochet finds himself before the bar of justice, and others who used their power to kill, torture or exile their fellow citizens are being pursued.
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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2005/01/07/2003218400

[AlbizuX]

1. so much about this old ass man....

listen, we know he did it, who else is responsible for the murders of thousands of Chileans. Do we really need to go through a trial to know he's responsible?

Quick and easy...let's do it like he did to the Chileans. Put concrete on his feet, elevate him over the sea in a helicopter, and.....