A Chilean judge today formally charged former dictator Gen Augusto Pinochet with homicide and kidnapping in one of many pending cases related to human rights abuses committed during his 17-year rule. "General Pinochet was declared mentally fit to stand trial in Chile," Special Judge Juan Guzman told reporters.
Gen Augusto Pinochet
Gen Pinochet 's defence had tried to argue he was not mentally competent to face the charges. Gen Pinochet , who resides in a Santiago mansion and recently turned 89, could be placed under house arrest after formal notification of the charges, which usually takes a day. Gen Pinochet 's attorneys plan to appeal Guzman's decision.
In an earlier human rights case, his defense lawyers successfully kept him from being tried when the Supreme Court ruled that his mild dementia made him mentally incompetent.
The homicide and kidnapping charges filed today relate to nine disappearances and one death that occurred in the 1970s as part of Operation Condor, an intelligence-sharing network of South American dictators who helped each other hunt down dissidents.