THE Supreme Court of Chile has stripped Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator, of his immunity from prosecution over kidnappings and torture after the coup in 1973.

The court’s decision opens the way for Pinochet to be charged over 59 cases of human rights abuses at the Villa Grimaldi prison in Santiago, the capital. It was in this prison that Michelle Bachelet, now president of Chile, and her mother, Angela Jeria, were tortured.

Pinochet’s family argues that the 90-year-old general is too ill to stand trial, although court-appointed doctors say he is fit enough. An official announcement is expected on Tuesday as to whether charges will be pressed against him.

Pinochet has enjoyed immunity from prosecution for human rights abuses in Chile under a law he introduced before leaving office in 1990.

Thousands of people were tortured at the Villa Grimaldi, used by Pinochet’s secret police between 1974 and 1977.

Bachelet, then a 22-year-old medical student, and her mother were arrested months after the coup in September 1973. It was “one of the worst houses of torture”, said Jeria. “I was kept for a week in a box, blindfolded, tied up and without food.”

Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998 after he arrived for medical treatment but resisted attempts by Spanish prosecutors to have him extradited. After 16 months’ house arrest in Surrey, he was released in 2000 on the grounds that he was medically unfit to be tried. He also faces charges of embezzling millions of dollars of public funds.

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