Pinochet Feels Betrayed by Britain, Paper Reports
LONDON — In his first public statement since his arrest in London last month, former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet says he feels betrayed by Britain, a newspaper reported.
“I am saddened that the experience of my arrest has shaken my belief in Britain. . . . I did not believe that I would be the subject of spurious attempts by foreign prosecutors to convict me on unproven charges,” early editions of the Sunday Times quoted Pinochet as saying in a four-page statement.
British police arrested Pinochet, 82, at the instigation of a Spanish magistrate seeking to extradite him on charges of genocide, terrorism and torture. Chile’s secret police are accused of committing the crimes after Pinochet seized power in 1973, toppling President Salvador Allende, an elected Marxist.
The ex-dictator pledged to fight extradition to Spain “with all my spirit,” adding: “a show trial in a foreign land is not justice. It is certainly not British justice.”
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