Former Chilean dictator Gen Augusto Pinochet suffered a mild stroke and was hospitalised yesterday, just three days after being questioned for the first time on alleged human rights abuses committed during his 17-year rule.
Doctors at Santiago's Military Hospital said the ailing 85-year-old general had suffered a "transient ischemic attack" - hardening of the arteries to the brain that commonly precedes a stroke - adding he would likely be in the hospital's intensive care unit at least until this afternoon.
Mr Pinochet faces possible charges of murder and kidnapping in the deaths of some 75 political opponents in October 1973, a month after the bloody coup that brought him to power. He also faces a growing number of lawsuits over the more than 3,000 people killed or kidnapped under his iron-fisted rule from 1973 to 1990.
AFP