World Scene

CHILE

Court strips Pinochet of immunity

SANTIAGO — Chile’s Supreme Court stripped Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution yesterday, paving the way for the trial of the former dictator on charges of human-rights abuses.

The court voted 9-8 to lift the immunity Gen. Pinochet, 88, enjoys as a former president. The decision removes a major legal hurdle for prosecutors seeking to bring Gen. Pinochet to justice, adding to his legal woes after Chilean investigators opened a probe into multimillion-dollar bank accounts in the United States.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought on behalf of victims of Operation Condor, which they say was a coordinated plan of repression against opponents by the military dictatorships that ruled the South American nation in the 1970s and ‘80s.

BRITAIN

Cleric sought by U.S. faces more charges

LONDON — British police began their own terrorism case yesterday against radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, already jailed in London under a U.S. arrest warrant.

Police said Mr. al-Masri, 47, who already was being held at London’s Belmarsh high-security prison fighting extradition to the United States, was formally arrested under the 2000 Terrorism Act and brought to a London police station.

He has been indicted in the United States on 11 counts, including having a role in a 1998 hostage taking in Yemen in which four persons died.

PANAMA

President pardons Cuban exiles

PANAMA CITY — Panama’s outgoing president yesterday pardoned four Cuban exiles jailed for plotting to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro in 2000, and three of them flew straight to Miami, a haven of anti-Castro groups.

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