Hearings start on Pinochet’s house arrest as he leaves hospital
The Santiago army hospital said that Pinochet, aged 89, was taken to his home to continue his treatment and rehabilitation.
Pinochet was indicted and ordered to remain under house arrest last week by Judge Juan Guzman and, on Monday, the Santiago Court of Appeals upheld both decisions.
Pinochet’s defence lawyer Pablo Rodriguez appealed to the Supreme Court and he opened the hearings requesting the annulment of the indictment and house arrest on health grounds.
He recalled that the same court dropped a 1991 indictment of Pinochet by Judge Guzman on a different rights case, after doctors determined the former ruler suffers from moderate dementia, resulting from several strokes sustained since 1998.
In addition to Mr Rodriguez, the three justices were to hear seven prosecution lawyers in the Operation Condor case, a joint plan implemented by the South American dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s to suppress dissent.
Mr Guzman charged Pinochet with nine kidnappings and one homicide in the operation.
Pinochet was admitted to hospital on Saturday, when he suffered a stroke.
His daughter, Lucia, said Pinochet’s condition had been so bad that day, the family “feared the worst.”
She said Pinochet was administered the Catholic last rites, which are normally given to people believed to be close to death.
Pinochet faces legal trouble in two other cases - the 1974 Argentina bombing that killed his army commander predecessor, General Carlos Prats, who opposed his 1973 coup, and the disclosure that he kept up to $8 million in secret bank accounts in the United States.
