Pinochet Arrested for Tax Fraud.

Augusto Pinochet, deadly former Chilean dictator, was arrested today, but not for orchestrating the murders of thousands of his people, but for tax fraud and passport forgery. Yahoo News Reuters excerpt:

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was put under house arrest on Wednesday after being charged with tax fraud and passport forgery related to $27 million stashed in secret bank accounts under false names.

Judge Carlos Cerda, who is also the prosecutor on the case, issued the indictment, confined Pinochet to his home and set bail at $23,000. Additional charges include using false documents and incomplete statement of assets.

Pinochet, who will turn 90 on Friday, has been indicted in two human rights cases in the last five years, but the cases were thrown out by courts that ruled his mild dementia, caused by frequent mini-strokes, made him unfit to face trial.

Human rights lawyers have pushed for years to convict Pinochet in thousands of cases of torture and killings by secret police under his 1973-90 rule, but the recent bank accounts case is the one case that has gathered momentum.

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The fact that this piece of shit, who should be rotting away in a smelly jail cell far away from real humans, is still living the high life is a cruel and twisted joke on the rest of us. The fact that he has been allowed to live free, and to see the age of 90 is proof that there is no true justice. The fact that this monster was a created in part by the Nixon White House only serves to emphasize this fact.

That $23,000 bail? Does anyone really think this terrible man can't have his people come up with that in less than ten minutes? And is anyone else struck by the irony that Pinochet is getting the Al Capone treatment here? Christ, the similarities are uncanny. Both men committed terrible crimes, in full sight of everyone, yet it took technicalities in tax codes to bring Capone to justice. Will the same thing finally put Pinochet away for good?