Former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet was stripped of his legal immunity to face charges of diverting public funds to personal bank accounts.
Judge Juan Escobar, president of the Santiago Court of Appeals, said his tribunal had voted 21 to 3 to remove Pinochet's immunity.
The decision is part of a wider corruption-related legal process in which the 90-year-old former strongman also lost immunity against charges of tax evasion and controlling secret overseas bank accounts totaling as much as $28 million. A person with legal immunity must be stripped of it separately in each case.
