Former Chilean judge Juan Guzman, considered the “Killer” ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet, prosecuted for crimes against humanity under his regime from 1973 to 1990 but never convicted, died on Friday January 22 at the age of 81, his family announced.
An obstinate leader of investigations into the crimes of the dictatorship, Judge Guzman had, from 1998, prosecuted General Pinochet, in particular for the assassinations committed by “The caravan of death”, a squad of soldiers who traveled the country executing a hundred opponents after the military coup of September 1973.
Judge Guzman had twice indicted Augusto Pinochet, but in 2002 the Supreme Court dismissed the case alleging a “Moderate dementia” which prevented the ex-dictator from defending himself in court for the more than 3,000 dead and missing under his regime.
“A courageous, very committed judge”
His death in December 2006 at the age of 91 saved him from all the prosecutions that targeted him, in France as in Chile, causing reactions of frustration throughout the world.
“I would have agreed with the Supreme Court ruling, but having seen Pinochet and seriously studied the medical reports, I could not help but feel that he had normal mental faculties”, Mr. Guzman had said in an interview with the German press.
“He was a courageous judge, very committed to the cause of human rights”, paid tribute on Twitter MP Carmen Hertz, whose husband Carlos Berguer was killed at the start of the dictatorship.
Judge Guzman retired in 2005 and published his memoir the same year: At the edge of the world, the memoirs of Judge Pinochet (Les Arènes editions).