Chile's Supreme Court has stripped former dictator Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution in a notorious human rights case.
The decision last night raises hopes of victims that he may finally face trial for abuses during his 17-year regime.
The ruling upheld a lower court decision in May that removed the immunity granted Pinochet as a former head of state.
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet
The lower court said the retired 88-year-old general could be charged in connection with the disappearance of 19 leftists in the mid-1970s as part of "Operation Condor," a joint effort by South American dictators to wipe out dissidents.
"The country is a little more democratic than yesterday because this Supreme Court verdict confirms that nobody is untouchable," Mr Eduardo Contreras, a human rights lawyer, told reporters at Santiago's main courthouse.
Human Rights Watch and the Latin American Human Rights Association applauded the ruling.
Pinochet took power in a coup in 1973 and at least 3,000 leftists were killed during his rule. He has been out of office since 1990, but has remained untouchable in the courts during six years of back-and-forth rulings in scores of cases.
He was arrested in London in 1998 on an extradition request from Spain to face genocide charges, but Britain released him 17 months later on grounds of poor health.
Human rights lawyers say the odds are now against Pinochet as public opinion has turned further against him after the recent discovery of secret, multimillion-dollar accounts, leading to new accusations of fraud and embezzlement.
The highest court removed Pinochet's immunity once before, in 2001, but his defence lawyers successfully argued that his mild dementia made him unfit to stand trial. In Chile, previous court rulings do not set precedent. His lawyers claim the same defence will work again.