Pinochet stripped of immunity in torture cases

General Augusto Pinochet was today stripped of his immunity from prosecution on charges of responsibility for 59 cases of torture and kidnapping.

They allegedly happened at a secret detention place during his dictatorship where hundreds of dissidents where held, including President-elect Michelle Bachelet and her mother.

The president of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Juan Escobar, said the justices voted 13-5 to lift Pinochet’s immunity, a ruling that must yet be upheld by the Supreme Court before the 90-year-old former strongman can be tried.

Bachelet and her mother, Angela Jeria, were arrested several months after the 1973 coup led by Pinochet and taken to Villa Grimaldi, a secret detention and torture place, where both underwent torture.

Their cases, however, are not among the 36 kidnappings and 23 cases of torture that led to the removal of the legal immunity Pinochet enjoys as former president.