Pinochet's Caravan of Death jailed

Pinochet's Caravan of Death jailed

Erik Lopez
Reuters

SANTIAGO– Chile's Supreme Court jailed five retired military officials Wednesday for involvement in the "Caravan of Death," the only case of dictatorship-era killings for which Augusto Pinochet was arrested in Chile.

The "Caravan of Death" was a military committee that travelled around Chile by helicopter after Pinochet's 1973 coup ordering the deaths of suspected leftist opponents.

"I'm very happy. We'd been expecting this after fighting for ... more than 10 years since lodging our case about the so-called caravan of death," said Hugo Gutierrez, lawyer for the victims' families.

Sergio Arellano Stark, who headed the committee, received a sentence of six years, a Supreme Court official said. The other four defendants received sentences of four or six years.

"(It is) an extraordinarily unjust sentence ... which is not based on any real proof," said Claudio Arellano Parker, Stark's defense lawyer and nephew.

"It is quite clear that when an 88-year-old is sentenced for events that happened 35 years earlier, they are in no position to properly face the punishment."

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http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/517954



Henry Kissinger, left, Augusto Pinochet, facing camera