On this day in ...... 2000 (10 years ago today), Britain freed former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet (right) following 16 months of house arrest, during which lawyers engaged in "wrangling" (the BBC's word) over the request that Pinochet be extradited to Spain stand trial for torture that had occurred during his 17-year rule. As we've posted, Britain's House of Lords cleared the way for extradition; on this day, however, the British Executive exercised its prerogative to decline to honor Spain's request. Legal wrangling would continue to pursue Pinochet until 2006, when Pinochet died in Chile, under the cloud of national criminal investigation.
