General Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile as head of a military junta from 1973 to 1990. He was indicted for human rights violations committed in Chile under his rule by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón in 1998. He was arrested in London six days later, the first foreign head of state to be detained under the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. Following his detention, he was held under house arrest for a year and a half, before being released by the British government in 2000 following a series of landmark extradition hearings. Authorised to return to Chile, Pinochet was subsequently indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia and charged with several crimes. He died in 2006 without having been convicted.
Pinochet led the 1973 coup, backed by a number of citizens, which deposed Socialist President Salvador Allende. His 17-year regime was notorious for many human rights violations. Among the most notable of these was Operation Condor, an clandestine effort to suppress left-wing political opponents in Chile and abroad, often in coordination with foreign intelligence agencies. Pinochet was also accused of using his position to pursue personal enrichment through embezzlement of government funds, the illegal drug trade and illegal arms trade. The Rettig Report found that at least 2,279 people were conclusively murdered by the Chilean government for political reasons during Pinochet's regime, and the Valech Report found that at least 30,000 people were tortured by the government for political reasons.
Pinochet's attorneys, headed by Pablo Rodríguez Grez (former leader of the far-right group Fatherland and Liberty), argued that he was entitled to immunity from prosecution first as a former head of state, then under the 1978 amnesty law passed by the military junta. They also claimed that his alleged poor health made him unfit to stand trial. A succession of judgments by various Courts of Appeal, the Supreme Court, medical experts, etc., led to Pinochet's subsequent house arrest and release, before he died on 10 December 2006, just after having been again put under house arrest on 28 November 2006 in the Caravan of Death case.Procesan a Pinochet y ordenan su arresto por los secuestros y homicidios de la "Caravana de la Muerte" , 20minutos, 28 November 2006.
At the time of his death in 2006, Pinochet had been implicated in over 300 criminal charges for many human rights violations,Más de 300 querellas abiertas , El Periódico, URL accessed on 10 September 2007 including the Caravan of Death case (case closed in July 2002 by the Supreme Court of Chile, but re-opened in 2007 following new medical advice), Carlos Prats's assassination (case closed on 1 April 2005), Operation Condor (case closed on 17 June 2005), Operation Colombo, the Villa Grimaldi, Carmelo Soria, Calle Conferencia, Antonio Llidó and Eugenio Berrios cases, tax evasion and passport forgery.Descubren 9.000 kilos de oro ocultados por Pinochet en un banco de Hong Kong , EFE, published by 20 Minutos, 25 October 2006
Timeline
Arrest in London
In 1998, Pinochet, who at the time continued to wield considerable influence in Chile, travelled to the United Kingdom for medical treatment; allegations have been made that he was also there to negotiate arms contracts.¿En qué negocios andaba Pinochet en Londres?. El secreto mundo de los armamentos." , Punto Final, 18 December 1998 While in London, he was arrested on 16 October 1998 under an international arrest warrant issued by judge Baltasar Garzón of Spain, before he was placed under house arrest: initially in the London Clinic where he had just undergone back surgery, later in a rented house. The charges included 194 counts of killings of Spanish citizens, the 1975 assassination of Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria, in addition to one count of conspiracy to commit torture – allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, including since the beginning of his rule, but had never been acted upon. Grappling with the conditions set by Chile's turbulent transition to democracy, the coalition government known as Concertación and headed by President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle opposed his arrest, extradition to Spain, as well as trial.
A hard-fought 16-month-long legal battle ensued in the House of Lords, then the highest court of the United Kingdom.The judgements of the House of Lords and the other British Courts which considered Pinochet's case can be found on the British and Irish Legal Information Institute website. Pinochet claimed immunity from prosecution as a former head of state under the State Immunity Act 1978. This was rejected by a majority of the Law Lords (3–2), who ruled that some international crimes, such as torture, did not grant a former head-of-state immunity.Naomi Roht-Arriaza (Professor of Law, University of California, Hastings College of Law), The Pinochet Precedent and Universal Jurisdiction in New England Law Review Vol. 35:2 (9 pages) However, the judgement was set aside in a subsequent, unprecedented case on the basis that one of the judges involved was potentially biased due to his ties to Amnesty International, a human rights organization that had campaigned against Pinochet for decades and acted as an intervenor in the case. A third ruling in March 1999 confirmed the original verdict; this time, the Lords held that Pinochet could only be prosecuted for crimes committed after 1988, the year in which the United Kingdom implemented legislation ratifying the United Nations Convention Against Torture in the Criminal Justice Act 1988."Straw considers Pinochet case", BBC, 25 March 1999 This invalidated most, but not all, of the charges against Pinochet and gave the green light for his extradition to Spain to proceed.
In April 1999, former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former US President George H. W. Bush called upon the British government to release Pinochet."Thatcher pleads Pinochet's case", BBC, 6 October 1999 Former U.S. President Bush urges Pinochet release , CNN, 12 April 1999 They argued that Pinochet should be allowed to return to his homeland rather than be extradited to Spain. On the other hand, United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Mary Robinson, hailed the Lords' ruling, declaring that it was a clear endorsement that torture is an international crime subject to universal jurisdiction. Furthermore, Amnesty International and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture demanded his extradition to Spain."Pinochet must go to Spain, says Amnesty", BBC, 21 January 1999 In protest against Spain's action, Chile withdrew its ambassador from Madrid for a time.Talks set to ease Pinochet rift, BBC, 20 June 2000 Thatcher sent Pinochet a bottle of single malt whisky during this time, with a note saying "Scotch is one British institution that will never let you down".
Meanwhile, questions began to emerge in the media about Pinochet's allegedly fragile health. After medical tests were conducted, Home Secretary Jack Straw ruled in January 2000 that the former dictator should not be extradited to Spain. This triggered protests from human rights NGOs; it led the Belgian government, along with six human rights groups (including Amnesty International), to file a complaint against Straw's decision before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January 2000.Belgium begins Pinochet challenge, BBC, 25 January 2000 Belgium, as well as France and Switzerland, had deposed extradition requests in the wake of Spain's demand. Despite protests by legal and medical experts from several countries, Straw finally ruled, in March 2000, that Pinochet had to be set free and authorized his return to Chile.Pinochet set free, BBC, 2 March 2000 On 3 March 2000, Pinochet returned to Chile. His first act upon landing in Santiago de Chile's airport was to triumphantly stand up from his wheelchair to the acclaim of his supporters.Alex Bellos and Jonathan Franklin, Pinochet receives a hero's welcome on his return, The Guardian, 4 March 2000 The first person to greet him was his successor as head of the Chilean Armed Forces, General Ricardo Izurieta.Pinochet arrives in Chile, BBC, 3 March 2000 President Ricardo Lagos, who had just been sworn into office on 11 March, said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged Chile's international reputation, while thousands held demonstrations against the ex-dictator.Thousands march against Pinochet, BBC, 4 March 2000
Despite his release on grounds of ill health, the unprecedented detention of Pinochet in a foreign country for crimes against humanity committed in his own country, without a warrant or request for extradition from his own country, marked a watershed in international law. Some scholars consider it one of the most important events in legal history since the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals. Judge Garzón's case was largely founded on the principle of universal jurisdiction – that certain crimes are so egregious that they constitute crimes against humanity and can therefore be prosecuted in any court in the world. The British House of Lords ruled that Pinochet had no right to immunity from prosecution as a former head of state, and could be put on trial.The Ripple Effect of the Pinochet Case , Global policy.org, 2004 In Spain, the Court of Appeal of the Audiencia Nacional affirmed Spanish jurisdiction over Argentine and Chilean cases, declaring that domestic amnesty laws (in the case of Chile, the 1978 amnesty law passed by Pinochet's regime) could not bind the Spanish courts. Both for matters concerning the "Dirty War" in Argentina and for Chile, they characterized the crimes as genocides. However, both the Spanish and British rulings relied not on international law, but on domestic legislation: "They talked about universal jurisdiction, but grounded their decision in domestic statutory law."
The arrest of Pinochet has been characterized as a watershed moment in the international justice regime. According to Daniel Krcmaric, the arrest "marked the first time in the modern international system that a current or former head of state was arrested in a foreign country for international crimes."
Return to Chile In March 2000, after Pinochet's return, the Chilean Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president", which granted Pinochet immunity from prosecution and guaranteed him a financial allowance. In exchange, it required him to resign his seat of senator-for-life. 111 legislators voted for; 29 against.Chile offers Pinochet new immunity, BBC, 25 March 2000 Despite this political move, on 23 May 2000, the Court of Appeal of Santiago lifted Pinochet's parliamentary immunity concerning the Caravan of Death case. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Chile, which voted on 8 August 2000, by 14 votes against 6, to strip Pinochet of his parliamentary immunity. On 1 December 2000, judge Juan Guzmán Tapia indicted Pinochet for the kidnapping of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case – Guzmán advanced the charge of kidnapping on the grounds that the victims were officially "disappeared": even though they were most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of homicide difficult.Pinochet charged with kidnapping, BBC, 1 December 2000 Shortly after, on 11 December 2000, the ruling was suspended by the Court of Appeal of Santiago on medical grounds. In addition to the Caravan of Death, 177 other complaints were filed against Pinochet.