By Tito Drago
MADRID, Oct 15 1999 (IPS)

The shortest route for former dictator Augusto Pinochet to return home to Chile would be for Santiago to request his extradition from Great Britain – an option ruled out up to now by the Chilean government.

Saturday marks the anniversary of Pinochet’s Oct 16, 1998 arrest in London, which took place as he was recovering from surgery on a slipped disc.

The arrest warrant was issued by Spanish judges Manuel García Castellón and Baltasar Garzón, based on legal proceedings initiated by García Castellón in July 1996.

Since the arrest, the Chilean government and Pinochet’s defence attorneys have made a variety of legal and political efforts to prevent his extradition to Spain, where he would stand trial for torture.

One of the main arguments used by Pinochet’s defence attorneys is that Chilean sovereignty has been infringed by the legal proceedings in Spain, the United Kingdom and other European countries.

Joan Garcés, winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize and one of the lawyers for the prosecution, told IPS Friday that “no one in London or Madrid questions Chile’s jurisdiction or sovereignty.”

He added that “in order to validate that jurisdiction, an extradition request would have to be sent” from Santiago to London – “which has not occurred.”

The presentation of such a request would first have to overcome hurdles put in place by the constitution and by laws that Pinochet imposed before stepping down as head of state, a position he seized through a bloody 1973 coup against the democratically elected government of socialist president Salvador Allende.

A number of lawsuits have been filed against the former de facto ruler in his own country. But Pinochet has not yet been declared a “reo” (accused), a necessary legal step that must precede any arrest warrant or extradition request.

Another indispensable step would be stripping Pinochet of the immunity he enjoys as a life senator – a post granted former heads of state by the constitution that he himself promoted.

That possibility exists, Chilean Foreign Minister Juan Gabriel Valdés told the Madrid daily ‘El País’ last month. “I am sure that if [Pinochet] returns to Chile, he will have to respond before the courts. This, which could seem hard to believe, is a reality today.”.

Since the legal proceedings against Pinochet got underway in Spain, nearly 50 lawsuits have been filed against him in Chile and admitted by the courts.

Spain continues to wait for Pinochet’s extradition, which has also been requested by Belgium, France and Switzerland.

Legal sources close to Spain’s ‘Audiencia Nacional’ (appeals court) say Chile would have priority if it requests Pinochet’s extradition, even though the four European countries have already sought his extradition, and legal proceedings against Pinochet are well underway in Great Britain.

If Chile fails to resort to that option, the most likely scenario is that Great Britain will send Pinochet to Spain, said the sources. According to rulings handed down in London, Pinochet could be tried for cases of torture and conspiracy to torture committed since December 1988.

Sources close to the prosecution in Spain said, however, that the laws of that country would be applied if Pinochet ended up standing trial there, and that he would be tried in connection with more than 1,100 cases of abduction and forced disappearance, to which no statute of limitations applies.

After Garzón rested his case, it would go to the Penal Chamber of the ‘Audiencia Nacional’, comprised of three magistrates, who would initiate an oral trial, hear the prosecution, the defendant and his attorneys, and issue a sentence.

The former dictator would be held, meanwhile, in the Alcalá- Meco prison, 20 kms from Madrid, where former Spanish government ministers and officials prosecuted in recent years awaited trial, according to the sources with the ‘Audiencia Nacional’ consulted by IPS.

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