1. BRITISH MAGISTRATE RULES AGAINST PINOCHET

1. BRITISH MAGISTRATE RULES AGAINST PINOCHET

Magistrate Ronald Bartle ruled this morning that Pinochet can be extradited to Spain to stand trial on torture charges, explaining, I am satisfied that all the conditions are in place (for extradition) which obligates me to commit Senator Pinochet to await the decision of the Secretary of State.

British Home Secretary Jack Straw must approve the extradition; Chile has previously and surely will continue to request that he send Pinochet back to Chile on 'humanitarian grounds' due to his age and poor health.

Pinochets lawyers will likely appeal today's ruling to the British High Court; they have 15 days to file the appeal.

2. PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY

Today at 10:00 am EST, the Institute for Policy Studies will hold a press conference at the National Press Club (529 14th St, NW) in Washington DC where Spanish lawyer Juan Garcés and other human rights advocaces will respond to today's ruling. DC SPECIAL SPECIAL PINOCHET WATCH UPDATE UPDATEers are welcome to attend. Text of the press release follows below:

Anti-Pinochet Lawyer, Human Rights Advocates to Respond to Extradition Ruling

Shortly after the ruling on Augusto Pinochet's extradition is to be announced in London, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) will host a press conference featuring the Spanish lawyer who has been the driving force behind the case against the former Chilean dictator. Juan Garcés, who will be in Washington to accept IPS's Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, will respond to the ruling at the National Press Club on Friday, October 8, at 10 am. (The ruling is scheduled for 6 am EST that day.)

Garcés initiated the case against Pinochet in 1995, when he drafted the briefs that persuaded the Spanish court to accept jurisdiction. He currently coordinates the legal team representing victims of the Pinochet regime. According to Garcés, This case sends a message to aspiring dictators that when they take power by force - sooner or later justice will catch up with them. Last week Garcés received the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize'.

Additional Speakers:

*Joyce Horman is the widow of US journalist Charles Horman, whose execution by Pinochet's forces days after the 1973 coup was the subject of the film 'Missing', starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. She lives in New York City and continues to pursue the case publicly and legally.

*Carlos Salinas is the Advocacy Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Washington Office of Amnesty International USA.

*Saul Landau worked at IPS with Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, who were murdered by agents of the Pinochet regime in 1976. Landau co-authored Assassination on Embassy Row, an investigation of these murders. He is now a professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

During the extradition hearing, Pinochet was charged with 34 counts of torture, one count of conspiracy to torture, and for his role in over 1,000 disappearances. If the ruling favors extradition, Pinochet could appeal to the British High Court and then to the House of Lords. The British Home Secretary could also release Pinochet, 83, on humanitarian grounds. However, according to Garcés, it would be a contradiction to involve humanitarian reasons for someone who is accused of crimes against humanity.