|
|
What legal devices will enable human rights activists to get around the amnesty law?
Judge Guzman ruled last year that the amnesty is not applicable to crimes involving abduction and "disappearance," since such crimes are "ongoing, unless the victim can be legally established to have died during the period covered by the amnesty decree (1973-1978).
Some nineteen victims of the Caravan of Death remain unaccounted for, and the perpetrators of these crimes therefore are not subject to amnesty. The Supreme Court unanimously confirmed this doctrine in July 1999, when it upheld the indictment on kidnapping charges of a former general and four senior former army officers who belonged to the Caravan of Death unit. Effectively, therefore, the amnesty could not prevent Pinochet from being tried for "disappearances," although it may shield him for prosecution for other crimes, such as torture and extrajudicial execution.
Human rights lawyers in Chile may also argue that the amnesty law is invalidated by the provisions of international human rights law, which establish that crimes against humanity may not be subject to amnesty or statutes of limitation. Judging from earlier decisions, however, the Supreme Court is unlikely to endorse this doctrine.
Go to: Given Pinochet's status as a former army officer, would Judge Guzman not have to surrender the case ultimately to a military court? Back to: The Pinochet Precedent: the End of Impunity? |