| 90-year-old ex-dictator of Chile Augusto Pinochet, who ruled the country from 1973 to 1990, has been conditionally released from house arrest on bail of 10 million pesos ($19,000). Lawyers for the general, accused of political repression, corruption and financial fraud, barely managed to scrape together this amount, although he himself owns accounts worth $27 million. After all, Pinochet’s funds remain frozen.
After seven weeks of home confinement, the elder went to rest at his summer estate on the Pacific coast. But apparently a new trial awaits him. Last Wednesday, the Chilean Court of Appeal stripped the ex-dictator of legal immunity in the case of the murder of political prisoners by his punitive unit. Let us recall that the trial was postponed by the Supreme Court in 2002, allegedly due to the general’s poor health. The resuscitation of the Pinochet case may also be caused by the upcoming second round of presidential elections in Chile on January 15. Katerina LABETSKAYA
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