How the Pinochet affair has unfolded

1998

1998

September 21 - Pinochet, aged 82, flies to Britain, suffering back problems en route.

September 22 - Arrives in Britain to a VIP welcome laid on by the Foreign Office.

October 5 - Has drinks with Baroness Thatcher at her Belgravia home.

October 9 - Undergoes back surgery at the London Clinic, near Harley Street.

October 16 - Is arrested in hospital shortly before midnight. Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon requested his detention in connection with disappearances and murders of Spanish nationals in Chile.

October 22 - Baroness Thatcher calls for Pinochet's immediate release.

October 28 - At the High Court Lord Bingham, the Lord Chief Justice, and two colleagues unanimously rule the 82-year-old is "entitled to immunity as a former sovereign from the criminal and civil process of the English courts".

The then Attorney General John Morris QC declines consent for UK prosecution, citing "insufficient admissible evidence".

October 29 - Pinochet moves to a private psychiatric hospital, Grovelands Priory Hospital, Southgate, north London.

November 11 - Formal extradition request, signed by Judge Garzon on November 3, arrives on Jack Straw's desk. Implicates Pinochet in about 3,000 deaths.

November 25 - On his 83rd birthday, Pinochet is dealt devastating blow as the Law Lords, in a three-to-two judgment, overturn the High Court's earlier decision and rule he is not immune.

December 1 - Pinochet moves to house on exclusive Wentworth Estate, Surrey.

December 9 - Home Secretary Jack Straw issues Authority to Proceed, instrument by which a formal extradition request is passed to the UK courts.

December 11 - In 13-page "letter to the Chilean people", Pinochet proclaims he is "absolutely innocent of all the crimes and all the facts of which I am accused".

Earlier he tells Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in London that he does not recognise the right of any court outside Chile to hear "all the lies of Spain".

December 17 - The Law Lords agree to reconsider whether or not Pinochet has immunity, setting aside the earlier Lords' ruling. Pinochet's lawyers had accused Lord Hoffmann, one of the original panel, of allowing a "real danger of bias" into that hearing, because of his long-standing relationship with Amnesty International.

1999

January 18 - Alun Jones QC, for Spain, tells day one of the new hearing that the number and seriousness of the crimes alleged against Pinochet make this the gravest extradition case to come before the Lords in the 128 years since extradition arrangements started. The Law Lords retire on February 4, after a hearing lasting 12 working days.

February 18 - It emerges that in November the Vatican made representations, apparently sympathetic to Pinochet, to the Foreign Office.

March 24 - By a 6-1 majority, the Law Lords again overturn the High Court's October 28 decision that Pinochet enjoyed blanket immunity. But they drastically reduce the number and range of charges. Chairman Lord Browne-Wilkinson says Pinochet cannot be extradited for tortures committed in Chile before late 1988 - when the Criminal Justice Act 1988 made torture an "extraterritorial" crime under British law.

He says Pinochet can be extradited, but "only for the extradition crimes of torture and conspiracy to torture alleged to have been committed after December 8, 1988", when the international Torture Convention - incorporated into British law by the Criminal Justice Act - became binding on Spain, the UK and Chile. Baroness Thatcher again calls for Pinochet's release.

March 25 - Garzon files new torture charges. Baroness Thatcher meets Pinochet at his Wentworth Estate home.

April 15 - Jack Straw directs that extradition should continue, saying that the remaining charges of torture and conspiracy to torture are serious enough to be extraditable, and there are no compassionate grounds to halt proceedings. New arrest warrant issued.

April 16 - New arrest warrant served on Pinochet. He tells arresting officer "I am being humiliated ... I'm a gentleman who knows about honour."

May 19 - Pinochet is taken to Princess Margaret Hospital, Windsor, Berkshire, for pre-arranged consultation after suffering pain in the lower abdomen area.

May 26 - Pinochet has routine check-up on his vision.

May 27 - High Court declines Pinochet's lawyers permission to seek judicial review of Mr Straw's decision to allow extradition process to proceed.

June 8 - Baroness Thatcher pays another visit to the general, spending 90 minutes with him.

July 1 - Garzon adds further torture cases to indictment.

July 2 - Pinochet undergoes electro-cardiogram at private clinic in Virginia Water. Friends say later that the general's pacemaker is now doing "100%" of the work of maintaining his heartbeat.

July 6 - In a Lords debate, Baroness Thatcher claims that Pinochet is being victimised "because the organised international Left are bent on revenge".

July 8 - Pinochet is spared massive legal bill as the Law Lords rule that the taxpayer must meet the lion's share of the costs generated by the legal saga.

July 18 - In an interview with Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson, Pinochet describes himself as "England's only political prisoner".

September 11 - Pinochet supporters meet him at Wentworth to pass on the "wishes of the Chilean people" on the 26th anniversary of his coup.

September 13 - Pinochet attends Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, for a brain scan, renewing concerns about his health.

September 15 - In letter to Chile's Senate President Andres Zaldivar, dated September 11, Pinochet laments the violence during his dictatorship. He says that he shares the pain of those who suffered and has "no hatred or rancour" in his soul.

September 17 - Chile temporarily recalls ambassador to Spain to express displeasure over Madrid's refusal to go to arbitration.

September 23 - Pinochet goes to Princess Margaret Hospital, Windsor, for further neurological tests.

September 24 - In Madrid, the appeals court rejects a request by Spanish state prosecutors to block the extradition bid, ruling that Judge Garzon does have the right to seek Pinochet's extradition.

September 27 - Detailing one conspiracy to torture and 34 charges of the torture of individual Chileans, Alun Jones QC tells the first day of the formal extradition hearing at London's Bow Street Magistrates Court that Pinochet is charged with "some of the most serious allegations of crime ever to come before English criminal courts".

September 30 - At the end of the four-day hearing, former Tory Chancellor Lord Lamont accuses Tony Blair of stacking the legal process against Pinochet - Mr Blair had described Pinochet as "unspeakable".

October 1 - Belgium renews its arrest warrant for Pinochet, having first joined the list of nations that want to try him in the previous November.

October 6 - Pinochet is excused appearing at Bow Street for the ruling in the extradition case after the court hears that he is in poor health and recently suffered two minor strokes. Surrey GP Dr Michael Loxton tells the court that Pinochet suffered the first stroke on September 9, followed by a second on September 25.

At a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool, Baroness Thatcher describes Pinochet as Britain's only political prisoner.

October 8 - At Bow Street Magistrates Court in central London, Deputy Chief Stipendiary Magistrate Ronald Bartle commits Pinochet on all 35 charges, saying that "all the conditions are in place", under the terms of the Extradition Act 1989, to require the 83-year-old to await Home Secretary Jack Straw's final decision on extradition.

Pinochet's barrister, Clive Nicholls QC, reads to the court a statement from the general in which he protests his innocence, contests Spain's jurisdiction and complains the extradition bid "is politically motivated and being pursued clearly for political reasons".

October 14 - Chile formally asks Britain to release Pinochet because of his deteriorating health.

October 15 - It emerges that the Chilean President, Eduardo Frei, has written to Tony Blair regarding the general. The content of the letter is not disclosed.

October 16 - More than 300 people, mostly Chilean emigres and human rights activists, demonstrate noisily outside Pinochet's temporary home to mark the first anniversary of his arrest. In Santiago, up to 40 people are arrested after Pinochet supporters protest violently outside the British embassy.

October 21 - Spain says it will not lodge an appeal if Mr Straw decides to free Pinochet on humanitarian grounds, as that would be a government decision, not a judicial ruling.

November 5 - Home office write to Pinochet's lawyers asking him to undertake a medical examination.

November 11 - Permission for medical examination granted.

2000

January 5 - Pinochet undergoes seven hours of tests at Northwick Park Hospital, north London, to assess his fitness to be extradited.

January 11 - Jack Straw announces he is "minded" to release General Augusto Pinochet based on medical reports.

January 25 - Six human rights groups and the Belgian Government lodge papers with the High Court seeking leave for a judicial review of Mr Straw's refusal to disclose the medical reports.

January 29 - A Chilean Air Force Boeing 707 arrives at RAF Brize Norton in anticipation of the end of the case.

January 31 - Judge Mr Justice Maurice Kay throws out the applications saying Mr Straw has acted "fairly, lawfully and rationally".

February 7 - Belgium and the six human rights group take their case before three judges headed by Lord Justice Simon Brown in the Divisional Court.

February 15 - After the court rules in their favour, Jack Straw agrees to disclose the report to the states requesting Pinochet's extradition - Spain, France, Switzerland and Belgium - and gives them seven days to respond.

February 16 - Within hours, leaked extracts of the report reveal the general is suffering from extensive brain damage after a series of strokes. The general's legal team ask the Attorney General to investigate whether the breach amounts to a contempt of court.

February 17 - The Vatican says Pinochet has the right to return to Chile and that it wants his "odyssey" to end as soon as possible.

February 22 - All four states challenge the Home Secretary's proposals, demanding new medical tests. Switzerland warns under international treaties, ill health is no bar to extradition.

March 2 - Pinochet goes home