Chile’s former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet has been placed under house arrest and indicted for the first time on torture charges for abuses at a secret detention centre where president Michelle Bachelet and her mother were once held, the judge handling the case reported today.

Chile’s Supreme Court has refused to strip General Augusto Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution, blocking yet another attempt to try him for alleged human rights abuses during his dictatorship.