Chile's top court rules Pinochet has no immunity

[Judi Lynn]

Chile's top court rules Pinochet has no immunity

Friday, April 21, 2006 Posted: 2201 GMT (0601 HKT)

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court's ruling stripping Gen. Augusto Pinochet of his legal immunity, a step that clears the way for the former dictator to be tried in the kidnapping and disappearance of 37 dissidents under his long regime.

The 10-5 vote by the top court was in connection with Operation Colombo, in which court papers say 119 dissidents were killed in one the most notorious cases of human rights abuses during Pinochet's 1973-90 rule.

Pinochet was already indicted in a case involving nine other Operation Colombo victims and remains free on bail after being held under house arrest on those charges for 48 days starting in late November.

The court's ruling Friday allows the judge handling the case, Victor Montiglio, to add 37 new cases to the indictment. Pinochet is charged with kidnapping because the bodies of the victims have never been found.
(snip/...)

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/04/21/pinochet.ruling.ap/



Here's hoping they
do it right this time.

[sweetheart]

1. Good news

War criminals never get immunity. THis is great, as it
sets a precedent that bush and his cabal can be tried for
their capital crimes in future when they try to hide.

[acmavm]

2. Hmmmm. Pinochet is going to be tried as a war criminal. I wonder if

there are any of our own political luminaries who could possibly be involved? By that I mean he couldn't have killed all those people without the Allende coup. And that couldn't have come to a successful conclusion without help from...

[jamesinca]

5. Henry Kissinger is my guess

Others from that time: Nixon is dead, but Rudy G. from New York was in tight with the Nixon administration. He sat on a commission of RM Nixon's to look at ways to prevent terrorism in the US in response to the 1972 Olympics. One of the things that came up was the use of planes as missiles. Odd that it happened in Rudy's city and Condi had never heard this one before.

I am going to go with Kissinger, he seems like a good choice.

[WhiteTara]

3. K&R

:kick:

[kitkatrose]

4. Hot damn, this is good news!!!

:kick:

[Judi Lynn]

6. Former Cult Members Apologize to Chile for Leader's Sex Abuse

Former Cult Members Apologize to Chile for Leader's Sex Abuse

By REUTERS
Published: April 20, 2006
SANTIAGO, Chile, April 19 (Reuters) — Former members of a German cult based on a communal farm in southern Chile issued a public apology on Wednesday and asked forgiveness for 40 years of sexual abuse of children by their leader.

In a full-page letter published in a leading Chilean newspaper, El Mercurio, former members of the Colonia Dignidad communal farm said their charismatic former leader, Paul Schäfer, dominated them in mind and body while he molested children.

Mr. Schäfer, a former medic in the Nazi Luftwaffe, is also accused of working with the secret police to kidnap leftists during Chile's 17-year dictatorship. He became a lay preacher and was known to his followers as the Permanent Uncle.

"Since we have been liberated from the domination of Paul Schäfer," the former cult members said in the letter, "we have come to understand that our community lived its religious faith as a hermetic sect, which accepted the transformation of the personalities of its members and made them incapable of making decisions contrary to his wishes as sole leader."
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/world/americas/20chile.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Background story:

Last Updated: Friday, 11 March, 2005, 20:16 GMT

Secrets of ex-Nazi's Chilean fiefdom
By Becky Branford
BBC News

Allegations that Schaefer abused boys were persistently ignored
Paul Schaefer - a former Nazi medic, Baptist preacher and alleged cult leader - has finally been captured in Argentina after eight years on the run.

His arrest means he may face trial on outstanding charges of the sexual abuse of young boys in Chile.
(snip)

Former political prisoners of Gen Pinochet have testified to a warren of stone-walled tunnels under the colony, where they were taken to be tortured with electric shocks to the strains of Wagner and Mozart.

The Truth and Justice Commission, which investigated human rights abuses during Gen Pinochet's rule, backs such allegations.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4340591.stm





Colonia Dignidad