Pinochet stripped of prosecution immunity

A court today stripped General Augusto Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution, paving the way for the trial of the former Chilean dictator on human rights charges.

The court in Santiago voted 14-9 to lift the immunity the 88-year-old Pinochet enjoys as former president, a court clerk said.

The decision may still be appealed before the Supreme Court, which has repeatedly ruled that Pinochet is physically and mentally unfit to stand trial.

Human rights lawyers have sued Pinochet in connection with the deaths of several Chileans in the so-called Operation Condor, a repression plan implemented by the military dictatorships that ruled South America’s southern cone nations in the 1970s and 1980s.