Letter: Tyrants beware

Sir: Baroness Thatcher has urged the release of General Augusto Pinochet because "almost all charges against him" have been ruled out by the Law Lords. All legal systems that I am aware of regard the commission of even one crime as sufficient to convict.

This situation resembles that of Al Capone in the 1930s, when he was ultimately convicted for crimes far less notorious than those which made him famous.

JAVIER COUSO

University of California at Berkeley, USA