The former Chilean dictator, Gen Augusto Pinochet, has vowed to fight attempts to extradite him to Spain "with all my spirit". He has also signalled that he will seek an apology from Britain if his arrest is overturned.
Gen Pinochet broke silence ahead of today's resumed hearing in the House of Lords of a Crown appeal against a High Court ruling on October 28th that his arrest was unlawful because he enjoys sovereign immunity as a former head of state.
An unrepentant Gen Pinochet has branded recent accounts of his country's history as "a travesty of the truth", casting himself as the subject of "spurious attempts by foreign prosecutors to convict me on unproven charges".
The former dictator told how his tearful wife informed him of his arrest as he recovered from a back operation in a London hospital, and of his "hurt and bewildered" reaction.
Asserting that he was "at peace with myself and with the Chilean people" he declared: "A show trial in a foreign land is not justice. It is certainly not British justice."
He contrasted the circumstances of his arrest with his earlier reception in Britain this year, as on previous occasions, he was formally greeted by representatives of the British government at Heathrow Airport. And he said: "I am saddened," he said, "that the experience of my arrest has shaken my belief in Britain. Previously, I never doubted that Britain was a country where people may move around freely."
Recalling the historic ties between Britain and Chile, Gen Pinochet described his support for Britain during the Falklands conflict as "a matter of Chile's national honour", and said the support he has received, especially from Baroness Thatcher, has "moved me beyond measure".
He cited experience in Northern Ireland and in South Africa, saying: "Today we understand that reconciliation is essential to peace . . . We accept the reconciliation that has been brought about in Northern Ireland and South Africa. Only recently Archbishop Tutu's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has established wrongs on both sides of the dispute, but it is clear that reconciliation was considered fundamental to the future harmony and peace of the country."
Asserting that "there are few countries which have nothing in their past to regret" Gen Pinochet attacked Spain for denying Chile "the path which it followed" after Franco. "Spain ignores its own past," he said. "Spain left behind the Franco years with no recriminations. Why do they now wish to force us to do differently?"
The U.S. Justice Department said yesterday it has looked into the possibility of extraditing Gen Pinochet in connection with the 1976 car-bomb death of exiled Chilean Socialist Orlando Letelier and his American assistant, Ronni Moffitt.