Chile puts time limit on Pinochet-era inquiries

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Jonathan Franklin in Santiago
Monday January 31, 2005
The Guardian

The Chilean supreme court has set a six-month deadline for the completion of hundreds of investigations into crimes allegedly committed by former members of Augusto Pinochet's military government.

The ruling, which orders that by July investigators must either file charges or terminate the inquiries in 365 cases against former members of the armed forces, has incensed human rights activists.

Many of the accused are alleged to have committed murder, kidnap and torture during the late 1970s.

"The investigations are starting to show real progress; it is a false brake to put a time limit on them," said Joyce Horman, widow of the American journalist Charles Horman, who was kidnapped and killed in 1973.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/chile/story/0,13755,1402148,00.html

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