Chilean Judge Grants Bail to Pinochet

[Judi Lynn]

Chilean Judge Grants Bail to Pinochet
By EDUARDO GALLARDO
Associated Press Writer

January 9, 2006, 5:52 PM EST

SANTIAGO, Chile -- A judge on Monday granted bail to former military strongman Augusto Pinochet in the case of nine dissidents who disappeared during his dictatorship, but the general will remain under house arrest while another court reviews the decision.

Judge Victor Montiglio set bail at $19,200, but said the Santiago Court of Appeals must uphold his decision before Pinochet can end his six-week long house arrest.

Pinochet, 90, has remained in his suburban Santiago mansion since Nov. 24 on charges stemming from Operation Colombo, in which 119 people were killed in 1975, two years after Pinochet seized power in a bloody coup. The Pinochet regime at the time claimed the victims -- whose bodies were never found -- died in clashes among rival armed opposition groups.

Before Montiglio can proceed with a trial of Pinochet, however, the Supreme Court must rule on an appeal filed by the former dictator's lawyer, denying the charges and insisting Pinochet's deteriorated health makes him unfit to stand trial.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-chile-pinochet,0,7933849.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines





The ship is one of three torture ships employed by Nixon/Kissinger's Chilean right-wing monster, Pinochet.
The photo bears the image of an English priest tortured to death upon it. This one, also called "Gray Lady,
is "La Esmeralda." Not long ago a Chilean Navy officer apologized for his part in these atrocities.

When La Esmeralda stopped on the East Coast on a world tour, in the 1970's, American dissenters went to
protest and discovered there were American government personel taking photos of all gathered there.