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Australia pending appeal against extradition of former Pinochet agent charged with crimes against humanity DW | D.W.

The Australian Federal Court has not set a date for announcing its decision, but it will be granted within a maximum of three months, said Adriana Navarro, a lawyer representing the relatives of the six accused by Rivas. At a hearing on Tuesday, April 6, Judge Wendy Jane Abraham addressed 24 issues of Rivas’ defense against a lower court ruling issued on October 29, which agreed to extradite the Chilean from the age of 68 and detain him in Sydney City Jail since February 2019.

Rivas, who worked as a nanny and cleaner in Sydney for three decades, was part of the La Toro eradication team of the Directorate of National Intelligence (Tina, Pinochet’s Secret Police), where he became secretary to Manuel Contreras, the unit’s head.

Former Secretary of the Controras, the ultimate oppressor of the Pinochet dictatorship, is said to have been involved in the “bad kidnapping” of Vector Thiaz, then deputy secretary of the Communist Party of Chile in 1976, as well as the arrests of Fernando Navarro, Lingoin Ferrios, Horacio Cebeta, Juan Bernardo Were pregnant.

Rivas hides behind the 1978 Amnesty Act

Defense attorney Frank Sandici today focused on protecting his client with the Chilean Amnesty Act, which was ratified on April 18, 1978, protecting criminals, accomplices or jewelers from crimes committed during the Pinochet dictatorship, from September 11 1973 to March 10, 1978. .

According to the attorney’s version, Sandici argues that the order is still in effect, although many Chilean judges have ignored the law in recent years. According to Rivas’ defender, Chile will “call” Australia to violate the Chilean constitution with the extradition request.

Similarly, Rivas, who denies the allegations, maintains that Chile did not prove that he was Tina’s operative agent and that he was involved in the kidnapping of seven members of the Communist Party, the prosecutor had already recommended. Attorney Adriana Navarro, for her part, pointed out that in the October 29 judgment, “crimes against humanity were not recommended.”

Chile stuck with legal aspects

For his part, Trent Clover, a representative of the Australian Attorney’s Office acting on behalf of Chile, focused on responding to technical and legal aspects to insist that handing over Rivas to Chile was appropriate. Clover criticized Sandici for focusing only on the two testimonies cited in the extradition documents, and stressed that it was recognized that Tina had acted “outside the law.”

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The verdict of this process can still be appealed to full Australian federal court judges, although only on the basis of the possibility of an error in the interpretation or application of the law, it is unlikely to reach the High Court, the Supreme Court.

After settling the legal battle in Australia, the last word to be handed over was Attorney General Michaelia Cash of the Sea.

jov (efe, portnews)