Pinochet Put Under House Arrest

Two days away from his 90th birthday, former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was indicted on Wednesday and put under house arrest on tax evasion and corruption charges stemming from the multimillion-dollar accounts he owns overseas.

The indictment and arrest order issued by Judge Carlos Cerda of the Santiago Court of Appeals were communicated to Pinochet by court official Silvia Papi at his suburban Santiago mansion, state television reported.

Cerda said Pinochet could be freed on bail at $22,200, but that would have to be approved by the Santiago Court of Appeals.

It was the first time the judicially embattled retired general was indicted for charges not related to the massive human rights abuses during his 1973-90 dictatorship.

The decision by Cerda, however, does not guarantee that Pinochet will actually face a full trial. He has been indicted twice in the past on human rights charges, but the courts blocked the trials on health grounds. Two other trial attempts were stopped for the same reason at earlier stages, and scores of other criminal suits filed against him by relatives of victims of his regime are still pending.

Court-appointed doctors who examined Pinochet last month said that while he suffers from a mild dementia and has other neurological problems, he is fit to stand trial. That report is disputed by his defense lawyers, who were expected to appeal Cerda's decision.

The charges against Pinochet include tax evasion, using a false passport to open an account abroad, submitting a false government document to a bank and filing a false report on his personal assets.

Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart, and their younger son, Marco Antonio, had been indicted earlier as accomplices in the alleged tax evasion.

Cerda took over the case last month from judge Sergio Munoz, who estimated Pinochet's fortune abroad at $23 million. Munoz left the case after he was promoted to the Supreme Court.

The first report of accounts came from a U.S. Senate investigative report probing the Riggs Bank in Washington, where Pinochet had $8 million. Since then, accounts have been found in England, Gibraltar and elsewhere.

Pinochet's chief defense lawyer, Pablo Rodriguez, and other associates have insisted the money is legitimate, coming from donations, savings and interest on investments.

Pinochet repeated that explanation under legal questioning by Cerda last week, adding, "I have always been an honest man."

Wednesday's indictment was just part of Pinochet's current legal problems. He has also lost the immunity from prosecution in a human rights case known as Operation Colombo, and a judge is about to make a decision on whether to indict him.

In that case, Pinochet is under investigation for the disappearance of 15 dissidents in the early years of his regime.

According to an official report by the civilian government that succeeded him in 1990, 3,190 people were killed during Pinochet's regime for political reasons. More than 1,000 others remain unaccounted for after being arrested.