London - The former Chilean dictator, Gen Augusto Pinochet, will not be allowed to leave his home to attend midnight Christmas Mass in church today, a London court agreed yesterday. However, the 83-year-old's bail conditions were amended so he can leave in the event of needing urgent medical or dental treatment over the holiday period.
Gen Pinochet's lawyer, Mr Michael Caplan, told Bow Street magistrates court in central London that a Catholic priest would visit his client on Christmas Eve. Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate Graham Parkinson told the court: "I would not have agreed to him going to church. It has got to come to him."
Mr Parkinson gave no reasons for his decision but it was thought that considerations involved the massive security that followed Gen Pinochet when he travelled to his house from hospital or to court.