(London, December 9, 1998) -- Human Rights Watch today hailed the decision by the British Home Secretary to allow extradition of Chilean ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet to go forward. "This decision brings us one step closer to the day when Pinochet will have to answer for his terrible crimes," said Reed Brody, Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, an international monitoring organization based in New York. "The wall of his impunity is tumbling down."
This decision brings us one step closer to the day when Pinochet will have to answer for his terrible crimes. The wall of his impunity is tumbling down.
Reed Brody
Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch
|
| |
Brody applauded the British government's important step towards an "ethical foreign policy," which evidently gave weight to the arguments of Pinochet's victims against the claims of geopolitics and trade relations.
Brody noted that Straw's decision could still be challenged by Pinochet's lawyers in court. But he expressed the hope that any judicial review of Straw's decision would, like the House of Lords panel last month, deny Pinochet immunity from extradition.
"There's a growing international consensus, both legal and political, that those responsible for the worst atrocities must be punished," said Brody. "This is a tremendous birthday present to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights tomorrow."
