Pinochet’s Will is Being Trialed

Augusto Pinochet

Yesterday morning the Third Civil Court of Santiago (Chile) began the opening hearing of the will left by the deceased president Augusto Pinochet Ugarte.

The document was made by the former dictator a year prior to his death (2005), had only one administrative modification, while it was under a judicial investigation to determine the origin of his fortune.

Currently, the document is under custody of a notary of Santiago. According to journalists, the original document has three pages were Pinochet gives his fortune to his wife and five sons.

The image of Pinochet fell after several investigations made by the United States Congress in 2004 regarding laundering charges in its country, in 2004, after the attacks of 11-S. The results uncovered Pinochet, who had a fortune worth $ 21 million deposited under 27 false names at Riggs Bank U.S. and other financial institutions in Europe and the Caribbean. Several of them had the names of some of their relatives.

The former dictator had a several properties and accounts in Chile, which still seized. At the time, Pinochet and his family argued that the money and property was the accumulation of the “lifetime savings”. The argument was refuted by an audit of the University of Chile responsible for justice.

In 2005, Lucia Hiriart (wife) and Antonio (youngest son), were jailed for tax fraud. Pinochet died in December 2006 at age 91 while serving house arrest as a result of three trials for human rights violations during the de facto regime (1973-1990) and another for tax fraud and passport forgery.

(BG)