Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
Pinochet, 85, who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, is suffering from a host of ailments, ranging from high blood pressure and diabetes to arthritis. He has had three mild strokes in as many years and has a pacemaker; last week, he spent six days in the hospital, where he received treatment for high blood pressure.
That impressive medical chart was apparently enough to convince the three-judge panel to vote 2-1 to suspend legal action against the former dictator, much to the chagrin of prosecutors. Pinochet was to be tried for his role in covering up 57 murders and 18 disappearances during the so-called "caravan of death" after his 1973 military coup.
"This ruling is the result of political pressures over the court," prosecution lawyer Eduardo Contreras said after the ruling. "But Pinochet will still go into history as having been indicted on human rights charges."
Among the likely pressures on the judges was the possibility that a Pinochet trial would tear Chile in two, according to Cristobal Edwards, a TIME correspondent in Santiago. With Chileans divided between intense love and hate for their former ruler, a trial could have spurred a social civil war. "For months they've been trying to find a way out that suits everyone's needs," says Edwards.
"There's no middle ground here, but they're trying to find a way to try Pinochet without having him tried, if that makes sense. He is ill, he forgets things here and there — it is questionable whether he is really unable to stand trial, but the fact is that he is very ill, and I guess this is a good compromise."
The ruling came after a weekend of rumors that Pinochet had died, said Edwards. "His family came forth promptly and said 'no, he's alive but very ill,'" said Edwards. "Some people are saying that those rumors were spread in anticipation of this ruling."
Prosecutors said Monday that they would seek a reversal of the ruling, but the possibility of Pinochet's health improving enough to resume talk of a trial appears dim, for now.