Family, aides of former Chilean dictator Pinochet released on bail

Oct 7, 2007, 18:00 GMT

Santiago - Relatives and former aides of the late former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet have been released on bail, media reports said Sunday.

The release late saturday of Pinochet's widow Lucia Hiriart (84), their five grown children and 16 others had been ordered by a Chilean judge on Friday following their arrest and detention a day earlier on charges of corruption.

Judge Carlos Cerda - who issued arrest warrants for them on Thursday - left final say to the Appeals Court in Santiago on the status of the 22 suspects, who include two generals and the personal secretary of the late dictator, Monica Ananias.

Augusto Pinochet, who died in December 2006, ruled Chile with an iron fist from 1973 to 1990, when around 3,000 opponents of his right-wing regime were killed and tens of thousands more detained, tortured or driven into exile.

The suspects were arrested in connection with the so-called Riggs case, in which Pinochet was alleged to have kept over 27 million dollars in secret bank accounts. They are charged with diverting public funds for the benefit of the late dictator and his closest relatives.

Judge Cerda did not waive the arrest warrant for former Pinochet executor Oscar Aitken, who still had not turned himself in to the authorities despite the warrant.

Chilean Justice Minister Carlos Maldonado stressed that 'it is the same' for the government whether Pinochet's relatives and former aides are released or remain in prison.

Pinochet's children, two men and three women, spent Thursday and Friday night in two prisons in Santiago while Hiriart, 84, was treated at the Military Hospital after suffering a blood pressure problem upon hearing of the arrest warrants.

In 2004, the US Senate uncovered secret Pinochet accounts, held mainly at the Washington-based Riggs bank, and Chilean authorities accused Pinochet of widespread tax evasion and corruption. He was found to have at least 128 secret accounts, set up with scores of fake passports and holding perhaps 100 million dollars or more.

The corruption allegations, even more than his earlier brutality, cost Pinochet many of his long-standing political allies.