Colonia Dignidad victims file US$120 million lawsuit against Chile
Source: Santiago Times
Colonia Dignidad victims file US$120 million lawsuit against Chile
Tuesday, 29 January 2013 19:40
Written by Laina Roberts
~snip~
Six former leaders of the Colonia Dignidad, an infamous torture ring in southern Chile, were sentenced to prison by Chile’s Supreme Court Monday, but the case, which prosecuted Chilean and German citizens for crimes committed in the 1990s, is not over yet.
Lawyer and former settler of the Colonia Dignidad, Winfried Hempel, announced on Tuesday the launch of a hefty lawsuit against the Chilean and German governments for negligence of alleged knowledge of structured torture and human rights violations.
“These convictions are the basis for us to pursue the indirect liability of the state of Chile, because the Chilean state had perfect knowledge they were committing such crimes for 50 years,” Hempel told El Dinamo.
~snip~
Colonia Dignidad was a cult-like compound of German immigrants founded by former Nazi pilot Paul Schäfer in 1961 near Parral, southern Chile. The settlement was used as a torture center for political prisoners during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, among many other human rights violations. Schäfer, the colony’s leader, died while imprisoned in Santiago in 2010 while serving a 20-year sentence for numerous child molestation charges.
Read more: http://www.santiagotimes.cl/world/chile-abroad/25667-colonia-dignidad-victims-file-us120-million-lawsuit-against-chile
(Augusto Pinochet was assisted in the coup and takeover, and his reign of terror by U.S. President Richard M. Nixon, Sec. of State Henry Kissinger and the U.S. C.I.A. and millions of U.S. taxpayers' tax dollars.)
= new reply since forum marked as read
