A Chilean court has dropped a test case against former president Gen Augusto Pinochet on charges of serious rights abuses, ruling he was mentally unfit to stand trial, court officials said.
Legal experts say Gen Pinochet (85) is now likely to avoid trial on any of the scores of charges he faces in Chile, the country he ruled from 1973 until 1990.
The decision can be appealed but few in Chile now believe Gen Pinochet will ever appear in court because the appeals process is so time consuming.
"I think, unfortunately, that this is as far as the Pinochet case goes," prosecution lawyer Mr Juan Bustos told reporters. He said Chile had failed to live up to promises made abroad to try Pinochet for the killings or disappearances of more than 3,000 people.
"This obviously leaves Chile on an extremely fragile footing with the international community as far as human rights in this country are concerned," he said.
The Appeals Court said it was suspending legal procedures against the former president over allegations he covered up atrocities by the "Caravan of Death", a military death squad.
The human rights lawyers who led attempts to put Mr Pinochet on trial in Spain expressed their annoyance at the collapse of the case.
"This serves to guarantee impunity and it is unacceptable from the point of view of the justice system," said Mr Carlos Slepoy, an Argentine lawyer involved in bringing a case against Pinochet before Spain's High Court.
"This is just a cover-up of the facts when there is plenty of evidence to link him to the Caravan of Death," he added.
Gen Pinochet was accused of covering up the activities of the Caravan of Death, formed by members of Chile's security forces who flew around northern Chile to kill suspected leftists shortly after President Salvador Allende was deposed in a coup in 1973.
Ms Joan Garces, who represented families of victims of Chile's military government, said a medical report showing Gen Pinochet as suffering from dementia seemed to be part of the same tactic used by the General's defence team after his arrest in London in 1998.
"It looks like a strategy to avoid the case continuing against this person," Garces said.
Gen Pinochet escaped extradition from London to Madrid after Britain's government ruled he was unfit for trial last year. However, the decision by the Chilean court would not be effective outside Chile and an international arrest warrant for Gen Pinochet remained in place, Ms Garces said.