Enrique Santiago Romero, a Spanish lawyer from Izquierda Unida writes on the Pinochet judgement of 24th March

The decision of the British House of Lords that Pinochet has no immunity from prosecution, at least for those crimes of torture and conspiracy committed by the Chilean military after September and December 1988 has put an end to much of the judicial debate that started worldwide when the dictator was arrested in October 1998 on the orders of the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon. Again, the house of Lords has reaffirmed the Nuremberg principle that no-one can have immunity if accused of crimes against humanity or flagrant abuses of human rights, even if they hold high office. This establishes the importance of three treaties: the conventions on torture and genocide and the international treaty on political and civil rights.

The decision of the courts to allow extradition only for crimes committed after 1988 limits the advances made so far in the international struggle against impunity. However, since we expect the British Home Secretary to rule again in favour of extradition, we fully expect that Pinochet will be extradited and face trial in Spain. The decision also allowed the Spanish to add 51 new cases to the 9 allowed by the Lords, all relating to torture committed in the period after 1988. All of these, like the other cases, have been documented and witnessed by the thousands of victims, their families and many organisations that defended human rights in Chile in difficult and terrible times. It is important to note that the General Assembly of the United Nations has declared that "disappearance" is a form of continuing torture of both the "disappeared" and of their families, until the day when the truth about what has happened is made known. These cases, 1,198 fully documented, may form part of Pinochet’s charge sheet.

The British courts will take months to decide on the extradition, during which the Chilean ex-dictator will have the right to use any legal defences. This right to a decent defence is an essential characteristic of the rule of law in a democracy and is, of course a right that Pinochet denied systematically and arbitrarily to the thousands of people who fell victim to the reign of terror he imposed after September 11th 1973. Who would, in those times have imagined that the day would arrive when the traitor general would have to appear in court to account for his crimes, even if it was 25 years later?

Translated and edited by Sue Lukes, Chair, Chile Committee for Justice

***

Lawyer Enrique Santiago wrote (with others) the initial accusation against Pinochet, that was taken by Judge Garzon as a basis for the extradition petition and arrest warrant to the British Government, on 16 October 1998. He can be contacted on: oma@eurosur.com