Pinochet law lords named

FOUR LAW lords who overturned the verdict of a previous panel that the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet does not have immunity from prosecution will be sitting in the re-hearing of the case next week.

Lords Browne-Wilkinson, Goff of Chieveley, Hope of Craighead, and Hutton will be joined on the new panel by Lords Millett, Saville of Newdigate and Phillips, the House of Lords announced last night.

Last month the first decision on the legal status of General Pinochet was overturned because one of the judges, Lord Hoffmann, had failed publicly to reveal his links with the human rights group, Amnesty International, which was lobbying to bring the general to trial.

Subsequently the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, demanded greater transparency from the law lords on their links with any parties involved in cases that they hear.

Lords Millett, Browne-Wilkinson and Hope will tomorrow hear applications from the Chilean government and human rights groups to be given the right to submit evidence at the new hearing.