Spanish request for Pinochet's extradition will now be considered by the courts

Britain's Home Secretary has crushed General Augusto Pinochet's hopes of immediately returning to Chile by ruling that Spain can continue seeking extradition.

"The Spanish request for his extradition will now be considered by the courts," Home Secretary Jack Straw said.

A Home office Statement added: "The secretary of state has ... concluded that the formal request from Spain appears to him to disclose the extradition crime of torture and conspiracy to torture."

Straw's decision to continue the extradition process raises the prospect of  further legal challenges over the fate of the 83-year-old general.

Following a second law lord ruling, the former Chilean dictator was given leave to appeal Mr. Straw's earlier (November 9th 1998) "authority to proceed."

However a date for a hearing was held over pending this secondary decision.

General Pinochet's lawyers are now likely to proceed with the appeal at the High Court.

If the decision is not overturned by the High Court, then the case goes back in front of Graham Parkinson, the chief Metropolitan stipendary magistrate where a committal hearing will be heard under Section 9 of the Extradition Act 1989 to decide whether the extradition can proceed.

If Graham Parkinson decides in favour of Extradition, General Pinochet can appeal again against that decision to the High Court to seek a writ of Habeas Corpus. If again he is unsuccessful, the case goes back in front of the British Home Secretary who makes a final decision (although that case can be subject again to a judicial review).

The Home Secretary's decision was today welcomed by New York-based Human Rights Watch. "After 25 years of impunity, this definitive decision means that Pinochet will finally have to answer for his terrible crimes," said Reed Brody, advocacy director of the organisation.

Karl Waldron lakota@clara.co.uk
http://www.lakota.clara.net