[NYTr] Pinochet relatives, ex-associates indicted in Chile
 
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 08:11:28 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
AP via CNN - Oct 4, 2007

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/10/04/pinochet.widow.ap/index.html

Pinochet relatives, ex-associates indicted in Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP)  -- The widow and five children of Gen. Augusto
Pinochet were among 23 people indicted Thursday on charges of
corruption related to the dictator's U.S. bank accounts, a judge said.

 Most of the suspects, including widow Lucia Hiriart and Pinochet's
grown children, already have been arrested, police director Arturo
Herrera said.

Those indicted also included at least four retired army generals --
Jorge Ballerino, Guillermo Garin, Juan Romero and Hector Letelier -- as
well as lower-ranking officers, Pinochet's longtime secretary Monica
Ananias and one of his attorneys, Ambrosio Rodriguez.

Judge Carlos Cerda said he ordered the arrests because of "solid
indications that they had participated in the misuse of fiscal funds"
during Pinochet's 1973-90 dictatorship.

Cerda was to decide whether to keep them in custody or free them to
stand trial.

Pinochet died in December at 91 while under indictment on human rights
and corruption charges.

 The judge's ruling is related to an investigation into the
multimillion-dollar accounts the former ruler owned at the Riggs Bank
in Washington and other foreign banks.

According to court papers, some of those accounts may have been fed
with funds from the so-called Military House, an office that aided
Pinochet's military activities during the dictatorship. Pinochet
remained an army commander during his long rule.

Cerda put the amount allegedly diverted from the Military House at $7.9
million.

Pinochet and his associates steadfastly denied any wrongdoing,
insisting the sources of the bank accounts were legitimate savings and
investments, plus donations Pinochet received.

Retired Gen. Guillermo Garin, who was for years Pinochet's spokesman
and one of his closest aides, said, "I have no responsibility
whatsoever in this."

President Michelle Bachelet said she would "await for the court's
decision with calm. No one in Chile is above the law."

At least 3,197 dissidents were killed or disappeared during the
dictatorship, according to an official report. More than 1,000 of them
remain unaccounted for.

Many Chileans are bitter that Pinochet never was sentenced to prison
time -- unlike many of his subordinates, whom he blamed for the abuses.
More than 500 former officers and security agents have been tried and
many jailed, including 50 generals, and scores of trials are pending.
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Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

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