CHILE:A judge has ordered the arrest of the widow and five children of Chile's former military dictator, Augusto Pinochet, on corruption charges stemming from more than $20 million (€14.15 million) found in Pinochet's US bank accounts.
Also ordered to be detained on Thursday were five retired generals, six ex-colonels and other officers, several lawyers and former diplomats, and the former personal secretary of the late general.
The action targeting Pinochet's family and members of his former military entourage stunned the country and brought Pinochet's divisive legacy back to centre stage in Chilean politics.
"No one is above the law," said Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, a former political prisoner and exile during the 17-year reign of Pinochet, who died in December at the age of 91.
Judge Carlos Cerda told reporters he ordered the arrests based on evidence that the 23 people cited had taken part in the "misuse of fiscal funds". Defence lawyers immediately attacked the ruling and said it would be appealed.
Pablo Rodriguez, a Pinochet family lawyer, called the court order "illegal" and "contrary to the essence of the fundamental rights of the person".
Pinochet's widow, Lucia Hiriart (84), entered a military hospital on Thursday after a rise in blood pressure and asked to remain under arrest there, Mr Rodriguez said.
The former dictator's children and the other suspects were reportedly taken to several detention sites.
The corruption case seems certain to raise tensions among restive former military officials in Chile, where collaborators of the Pinochet regime are angry about pending charges against more than 500 former officers, including 50 retired generals. "This case is like a cluster bomb that spreads and activates another series of legal processes, another series of threats," said Walter Sanchez, a political analyst.
Human-rights activists hailed the action as a blow against impunity surrounding the deaths and disappearances of more than 3,000 people in Chile's "Dirty War" against leftists.
"The death of Pinochet only ends his criminal responsibility, but it doesn't extinguish the responsibility of the collaborators, accomplices and cover-up artists who acted in concert with him," said Hugo Gutierrez, a lawyer specialising in rights cases.
Pinochet, who ruled from 1973 to 1990, had been facing corruption and human-rights charges when he died last year.
The arrests ordered on Thursday stemmed from the revelation in a US Senate hearing three years ago that Pinochet had accumulated more than $20 million in the former Riggs Bank in Washington. The Pinochet family says the money came from legitimate donations and investments. Law enforcement authorities suspect it came from kickbacks.
The corruption allegations shocked many in Chile, where citizens and officials boast of a relatively graft-free country compared to other South American nations such as Argentina, Peru and Brazil.
Pinochet liked to describe himself as a patriot who "saved" his homeland from communism by staging a coup on September 11th, 1973, against democratically-elected leftist president Salvador Allende.-