Chile: Juan Guzman, the magistrate who sued Pinochet, is dead
The career of magistrate Juan Guzman remains today in the memories of many Chileans as an example of rigor, courage and justice.
© LUIS HIDALGO / AFP
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2 min
He had been the first and only magistrate in the country to send General Pinochet to court for crimes committed under the dictatorship.
Chilean judge Juan Guzman died on Friday at the age of 81.
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With our correspondent in Santiago
,
Justine Fontaine
In 1990, after 17 years of dictatorship, General Augusto Pinochet was forced to hand over to a democratically elected president.
But he remains a senator for life.
He enjoys parliamentary immunity.
And it was he himself who appointed most of the sitting judges at that time.
Among them, Juan Guzman, rather close to the conservative right.
His family even celebrated the 1973 military coup led by Pinochet.
In 1998, this judge was drawn to investigate an emblematic case of human rights violations committed under the dictatorship.
As his investigation progressed, Juan Guzman then became aware of the extent of the crimes committed by the military regime.
To everyone's surprise, he is suing the former dictator as the intellectual author of several assassinations and enforced disappearances of political opponents.
It is the first time in Chile that Augusto Pinochet has been brought before a court.
The dictator will finally escape justice, under the pretext of a mild senile dementia in which no one believes, and died in 2006 without ever having been tried.
But the career of magistrate Juan Guzman remains today in the memories of many Chileans as an example of rigor, courage and justice.
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To read and listen: Le Chili de Pinochet
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