Ex-dictator Pinochet ordered arrested in Chile

Chilean former dictator Augusto Pinochet is seen in a 2003 file photo. Picture / Reuters

SANTIAGO, Chile - A judge has ordered the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for torture, murder and kidnapping early in his 1973-1990 regime.

Judge Alejandro Solis ordered the arrest of Pinochet for 36 cases of kidnapping, one of homicide and for 23 cases of torture at the Villa Grimaldi, a political detention center run by Pinochet's secret police where thousands of people were tortured between 1974 and 1977.

"I am not going to give any details until Monday, when he will be legally notified," he said outside the court house.

Solis, in charge of the Villa Grimaldi investigation, questioned Pinochet this month about what happened at the former detention center in the Chilean capital of Santiago.

Pinochet was forced to cancel celebrations for his 90th birthday last November after he was placed under house arrest on charges related to the disappearance and presumed death of three leftists during his 17-year rule.

The house arrest, also on charges of tax fraud, lasted for seven weeks, ending in early January when he was granted bail.

Pinochet has been diagnosed with mild dementia caused by frequent mini-strokes and he has avoided trial in other human rights cases on the basis he was too ill to stand trial.

"I don't think it has been proven that he is mentally ill," said Solis, who last met the former dictator on October 18, and remarked on how healthy Pinochet was looking.

During that meeting with the judge, Pinochet denied responsibility for the torture of opponents at Villa Grimaldi, one of the country's most infamous secret detention centers.

He told Solis he was not involved in what happened and had no knowledge of it.

Villa Grimaldi is also the prison where Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, the country's first woman president, was held and tortured three decades ago. Pinochet has not been questioned about Bachelet's case.

Pinochet made international headlines this week on reports he stashed gold in Hong Kong during the 1980s. HSBC Bank Plc, the bank involved, has denied the reports. Pinochet's defence team accused the government of leaking the fake documents.

Pinochet was first arrested in 1998 in London on an international warrant issued by Spanish judge Baltazar Garzon.

He was released in 2000, after 16 months of house arrest, on the grounds he was medically unfit to be tried.

- REUTERS