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Published on Thursday, December 29, 2005 by the Associated Press 
Chilean Police Book Gen. Augusto Pinochet 
by Eva Vergara 
 
Chilean police took fingerprints and mugs shots of Gen. Augusto Pinochet on Wednesday following his indictment for the killing and disappearance of nine dissidents during his dictatorship — the first time he has had to submit to a police booking.

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet attends a religious service in Santiago in this August 31, 2000 file photo. Chilean police took mug shots and fingerprinted the former ruler on Wednesday over his indictment related to the murder and disappearance of leftist opponents under his dictatorship. REUTERS/Stringer/Files
 
Pablo Rodriguez, a lawyer for the 90-year-old ex-dictator who ruled Chile from 1973-90, called the procedure "an affront to a former President of the Republic."

But government spokesman Osvaldo Puccio said the booking of Pinochet "shows that in Chile all citizens are equal before the law."

Pinochet had been indicted and held under house arrest in other human rights in other legal cases against him, but had never been submitted to a police booking.

No details were made public from the booking at his guarded suburban Santiago mansion where he remains under house arrest since his Nov. 24 indictment.

The law, however, mandates that the booking must be done by police officers, taking the prints from all 10 fingers of the person and taking front and side pictures.

Wednesday's procedure was ordered by Judge Victor Montiglio, who issued the indictment of Pinochet for the killing and disappearance of nine dissidents in 1975 in a case known as Operation Colombo. The nine were among 119 victims of the operation; the Pinochet regime said they were killed in clashes between rival opposition groups.

Rodriguez is expected argue Pinochet is unfit for trial for health reasons. Four times health problems have prevented him from being tried on human rights charges. Court-appointed doctors in the recent case have affirmed that, although he suffers from mild dementia, he can stand trial.

He also is under indictment on tax evasion and corruption charges related to secret multimillion-dollar bank accounts he maintained overseas.

Also Wednesday, a Chilean appeals court upheld a life prison sentence for Pinochet's secret police chief, who was convicted of killing 12 suspected urban guerrillas in 1987.

Retired Gen. Hugo Salas can still appeal his sentence before the Supreme Court.

Sixteen of Salas' subordinates in the Central Information Central, the feared security service of Pinochet's 1973-90 rule, were also sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to 15 years.

All were convicted in the killing of 12 suspected members of the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front, a pro-communist guerrilla that fought Pinochet's regime.

The government said at the time that the suspected guerillas had been killed in clashes with security agents, but a judicial investigation revealed they were assassinated in three separate incidents after being arrested