“PINOCHET MENTALLY FIT FOR TRIAL,” SAYS COURT IN CHILE

[Judi Lynn]

“PINOCHET MENTALLY FIT FOR TRIAL,” SAYS COURT IN CHILE

Appeals Court Decision May Open the Door for Prosecution

(July 11, 2005) In a decision that took the nation by surprise, a Santiago court ruled late last week that former dictator Augusto Pinochet was mentally competent to stand trial and ordered a criminal investigation into his role in the 1973 disappearance of two brothers in southern Chile.

The decision by the Seventh Bench of the Santiago Court of Appeals contradicts a previous ruling by the Supreme Court and a recent decision by the same Court of Appeals that found Pinochet too mentally ill to be subjected to court proceedings.
(snip)

In last Thursday’s formal decision, Cerda wrote that “Pinochet’s behavior … has been incompatible with his alleged mental state,” making all medical arguments on his behalf unacceptable.

The former dictator has proved himself capable of overseeing secret million-dollar bank accounts, as revealed by recent investigations into Pinochet’s banking activity at Riggs Bank, Citigroup’s Private Bank, the Bank of Chile and many other banks and shell companies around the globe.
(snip/...)

http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=9501&topic_id=1

[bluestateguy]

1. Well I guess he'll be having another stroke soon

as that old drama queen always seems to have some bizarre ailment everytime the court makes its next move.

[acmavm]

2. Considering what he knows and who he knows it about, I do believe you

could be right.

[SHRED]

3. Yeah but...

what about his buddy Kissinger?

[fasttense]

4. I would love to see this pig prosecuted.

He turned an emerging country into a backwater state. I lived in Chile before he took over and have friends who still live there. You would be amazed at the atrocities he committed. He wasn't happy with stealing the national wealth, he stole from the poor and starving as well. He makes it really hard to be against the death penalty.

[Melynn]

11. Didn't Pinochet privatize Chile's equivalent of Social Security?

I think I read that somewhere. Since you have connections to Chile, I was wondering how that turned out.

[Matilda]

5. I hope they'll get on with the trial quickly,

before he dies, and cheats his victims.

[trebizond]

7. Indeed.

This bastard needs to be made to pay before it's too late.

[gratuitous]

6. Now THAT would be must-see TV

Just a reading of the charges against that old butcher should be enough to send him off to his Eternal Reward. There's no way he can be properly compensated on this plane for his actions in life.

[WhiteTara]

8. maybe he will publicly roll over

on Kissinger the war criminal. That would really be must see TV!

[0007]

9. I wonder if Henry A. Kissinger will come to Pinochet's trial

and offer himself as a character wittiness?

[Jack Rabbit]

10. A fate that awaits the Frat Boy and his aides

There is no statute of limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzales -- and all others who lied, all others who dissembled intelligence, all others who approved torture and humiliating treatment, all others who said the Geneva Conventions did not apply to them -- are marked men and women. They will be pursued for the rest of their lives or until they are put away in a prison fortress to rot away their days.

May their victims not have to wait so long for justice as those of Pinochet have waited.