Italy releases Chilean suspected in 1983 slaying
ROME (AP) -- Italy's Justice Ministry on Thursday set free a Chilean leftist
arrested last week in the 1983 slaying of a member of Chile's then-military
government. Italy ruled out extraditing the man for what it said was a
political
crime.
Jaime Yovanovic Prieto had been held in a prison in the central town of
Assisi
since Sunday at the request of the international police agency Interpol.
Prieto was wanted in Chile in connection with the slaying of Gen. Carol
Urzua,
killed in an ambush by leftist guerrillas.
Responsibility for the killing was claimed by the now disbanded Revolutionary
Leftist Movement, which fought against Gen. Augusto Pinochet's 1973-90
military dictatorship.
The Italian Justice Ministry said in a statement that Prieto's alleged
crime was of
a "political nature," and that Italy's constitution bars extradition in
such cases.
Italy also refuses to hand over suspects when they might face the death
penalty
in their own country, as is the case in Chile.
About 50 leftist activists staged a sit-in outside a Perugia prison Thursday
until
Prieto's release from there late in the day.
Prieto, who lectures at a university in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was in Assisi
for an
activists congress. He has not asked for political asylum, according to
the Italian
Justice Ministry.
During Pinochet's regime, more than 3,100 people were killed for political
reasons, according to a Chilean government report. The figure includes
more
than 1,000 who disappeared, their bodies never found.
On Tuesday, Pinochet was stripped of his parliamentary immunity, a step
that
clears the way for his trial on human rights abuse charges.