Chile ex-general jailed at 91 for dictatorship crimes

SANTIAGO: Relatives of a retired general convicted of killings committed under Chile’s former dictatorship accused the courts Wednesday of acting vindictively by jailing him at the age of 91.

Hector Orosco’s lawyers say he has senile dementia but the country’s Supreme Court nevertheless handed him a 10-year custodial sentence. It convicted him last month for the execution of two dissident leftist leaders in 1973, at the start of Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship.

Police arrested Orosco this week after he declined to turn up to serve his sentence, and took him to Punta Peuco prison in the north of the capital.

Judge Jaime Arancibia ruled that Orosco “is lucid and can be taken in to serve the sentence in normal conditions,” the courts service said in a report Wednesday.

“Next they’ll be stripping him naked to humiliate him more,” complained the ex-general’s brother, Rene Orosco.

“This is not justice, it is vengeance.”

Orosco is one of numerous officials convicted of atrocities during the dictatorship.

Overall some 3,200 people were confirmed killed or went missing under Pinochet.

“The country can open a conversation about this, but the government will not change its position on the matter,” said government spokeswoman Paula Narvaez, referring to Orosco’s case.