General accused of more torture

GENERAL AUGUSTO Pinochet faces up to 33 new charges in the legal battle to extradite him from the UK to Spain after the Spanish authorities sent details yesterday of more alleged torture and murder cases.

The intervention by the Spanish examining judge Baltasar Garzon came two days after the law lords ruled that the former dictator was not immune from prosecution, but cannot face charges stemming from incidents before 1988.

All the new Spanish charges relate to a period after 1988. A Crown Prosecution Service official said there was no reason why some of them could not be included. Extra charges can be added until the day General Pinochet is fomally committed for extradition. This has been delayed repeatedly because of other legal actions.

Judge Garzon issued a court document yesterday saying he had evidence of 33 new cases of torture and murder during the general's rule after 1988.

He criticised the law lords' ruling that while General Pinochet's arrest was legal, he was not answerable for human rights abuses before 1988, the year a UN convention on torture became part of UK law. Describing the ruling as "inhumane", he said that relatives of those who disappeared during General Pinochet's rule had the right to know the whereabouts of their loved ones - regardless of the date they disappeared.

"To deny this right just because they were deprived of their freedom before September 1988 could be in itself an inhumane act," Judge Garzon wrote.

When the law lords' decision was announced, Garzon realised his case had been weakened and was determined to shore it up before extradition hearings began, court sources said. In the latest document, he argued that since many of the disappeared had not reappeared, an additional 1,198 cases of forced disappeareance of people could also be included in the charges against General Pinochet.