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Subject: (RIGHTS-BRITAIN:  CHILEAN GROUPS WANT PINOCHET TRIED IN BRITAIN)--> 

(RIGHTS-BRITAIN:  CHILEAN GROUPS WANT PINOCHET TRIED IN BRITAIN)-->

	<P> LONDON, (Oct. 21) IPS - Moving fast to catch up with Spanish
prosecutors who seek former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet's
extradition to Spain for possible trial, London-based survivors'
groups want to bring a British lawsuit against him first.

	<P> Pinochet, arrested as he lay in a London hospital bed on Oct.
16, will shortly face London magistrates and begin the long process
of extradition to Spain, where two prosecutors want to question him
about the hundreds murdered during his 17-year rule which ended in
1990.

	<P> Human rights groups Amnesty International, the human rights
group Redress Trust and the Medical Foundation for the Care of
Victims of Torture say there is a case for charging Pinochet under
Britain's 1988 Criminal Justice Act, which allows prosecutions to
be brought even if the offence took place in another country.

	<P> Supported by the family of William Beausire, a British citizen
who disappeared in Chile in 1975, they are collecting evidence for
a possible private lawsuit against the former Chilean president.

	<P> Meanwhile the London-based Chileans in Exile group has already
announced its intention to bring a private suit against Pinochet
in the British courts. "Now that Pinochet is in custody in London,
we for the first time have the opportunity to lay these charges
before a British court," the group said in a statement.

	<P> "Though things are yet not well defined, we have a team of
independent British lawyers to follow the prosecution," said Carlos
Reyes, president of the London based group Chile Democratic, who
was himself detained and tortured by Pinochet's forces in the
1970s.

	<P> After the exuberance that followed news of the arrest of
Pinochet here over the weekend, nervousness has set in among the
groups. They fear that Britain or Spain may lose their nerve and
fail to follow through with the extradition, to preserve good
relations with Chile.

	<P> Spain has 40 days in which to present a formal petition of
extradition to Britain, with an outline of the evidence against
Pinochet to justify the order.

	<P> If Britain agrees there is a case, Pinochet will have to attend
a extradition hearing before a magistrates' court in central
London. From there he will have right of appeal in the higher
courts, right up to the country's supreme court in the House of
Lords. If there is still no verdict, British Home Secretary
(interior minister) Jack Straw may intervene.

	<P> Both Britain and Spain have taken the line that the matter is
one purely for the judiciary to sort out and most of their
political leadership have generally tried to steer clear of
comment.

	<P> Dr. Francisco Dominguez, Chilean professor of Latin American
Studies at Middlesex University told IPS that he doubted that the
Spanish government would challenge the country's judiciary. "The
independence of the judiciary has to be reassured. The Spanish
government must act consistently with their condemnation of other
human rights violations."

	<P> However, he noted that some lawyers might argue that the Spanish
government could reject the extradition if it could be proven that
it would damage Spain's national interests.

	<P> In Britain the use of British law to charge and try people for
crimes committed abroad has been tested, in the case of World War
II Nazi war criminals and in more recently committed crimes, such
as sexual abusers of children in the developing world.

	<P> In Spain however the legal precedent is less clear. The Spanish
High Court is to meet next week to consider the issue, first raised
but never resolved when Pinochet was initially charged in absentia
in Spain for crimes of torture and murder two years ago.

	<P> The two Spanish judges whose investigations triggered Pinochet's
arrest, Baltasar Garz=A2n and Garc=A1a Castell=A2n, face serious
opposition from the Spanish judicial establishment. Spanish High
Court Chief Justice Eduardo Fugaino went on record last year in the
conservative Chilean newspaper Mercurio to dispute Spain's legal
authority to try Pinochet.

	<P> Spain is a significant trading partner of Chile, which blocked
a 60 billion peseta ($428 million) submarine deal last year when
the Spanish judges targeted Chilean military men during
investigations into the junta's crimes against Spanish citizens in
Chile in the 1970s.

	<P> The United States, whose deep involvement in supporting
Pinochet's brutal 1973 coup still has the capacity to embarrass
Washington, is also reportedly pressing Spain to move carefully on
the extradition order.

	<P> Hence the determination of London-based groups to prove that
Pinochet has a case to answer in a British court, in case Spain
loses its nerve. Britain's All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights
Group has already written to the country's attorney general, John
Morris, urging him to act if the extradition bid failed.

	<P> If it fails, said the group chairman, MP Ann Clwyd, "we believe
that the possibility of prosecuting him in this country under the
Criminal Justice Act 1988 should be actively considered by Britain,
since we should seize this chance to bring to justice one of the
most evil dictators alive."

	<P> In a separate letter to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir
Paul Condon, Amnesty International and other groups argued that
there was a sound case for bringing a prosecution here because some
of Pinochet's victims were British citizens or lived in Britain.

	<P> But some Chileans fear that the British courts may simply hand
Pinochet back to the Chileans for them to decide whether his
alleged crimes warranted prosecution or not.

	<P> The country has already effectively decided against this;
Pinochet was granted a lifetime seat in the Chilean senate in April
as part of his deal to transfer power in 1990 and is thus immune
from prosecution.

	<P> "I hope the British government is not going to surrender to
pressure and repatriate Pinochet (to Chile)," one of the founders
of the Federation of Families of the Detained and Disappeared, Ana
Maria Navarrete, told IPS.

	<P> Meanwhile, Judge Garz=A2n has broadened his warrant for Pinochet's
extradition. The initial warrant made allegations about Pinochet's
part in the deaths of Spanish nationals.

	<P> To strengthen his case to the British courts, the charges now
include genocide, terrorism and the torture of 94 people of
different nationalities, including citizens of Chile, Argentina,
the United Kingdom and the United States as well as Spain.

	<P> Garz=A2n argues that Pinochet could not claim diplomatic immunity,
since it could not apply to crimes against humanity and global
terrorism, citing Operation Condor, the international links between
military dictatorships in Latin America during the 1970s.

	<P> In reply, London law firm Kingsley Napley said in a statement
issued on behalf of Pinochet this week that "any attempt to
extradite him from the United Kingdom will be resolutely opposed.
Both he and his family are confident of success."