SANTIAGO, Chile - Chile's highest court on Monday
gave the green light to a judge wanting to question former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about the 1973 killing in
Chile of a U.S. journalist.
Charles Horman, made famous in the 1982 film ``Missing,'' was
seized by troops in his home days after Chile's September 1973
military coup that brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power.
His bullet-ridden body turned up at the morgue weeks later.
Horman's family believes that Kissinger and U.S. Embassy
officials in Chile knew of his detention but did nothing to
obtain his release.
Chile's Supreme Court said it would send a list of written
questions to Kissinger about the case through diplomatic
channels to U.S. legal authorities.
Chilean investigating judge Juan Guzman had asked the court
to pass on the questions.
``We order that the list of questions be sent to the
ministry of foreign affairs for delivery to the corresponding
court in the United States of America,'' a Supreme Court
resolution said.
Sources close to the investigation said the questionnaire
aims to gather more details about the lines of communication
within the U.S. government on Chilean affairs in 1973.
Horman's widow, Joyce Horman, has filed a lawsuit in Chile
against Pinochet and several other Army officers in connection
with the killing. She filed a civil suit in the United States
against Kissinger in the late 1970s, which was dismissed for
lack of evidence.
State Department reports declassified last year show that
U.S. intelligence officials may have tacitly helped in Horman's
abduction.
Horman was held in Chile's National Stadium, which became a
makeshift detention center for thousands of suspected leftists
rounded up by Pinochet's troops in the days following the coup.
Pinochet is not likely to be prosecuted in the Horman case
since a Chilean court ruled earlier this month that he was
mentally unfit to stand trial, effectively blocking efforts to
hold him responsible for crimes committed during his 17-year
rule.
Kissinger, secretary of state between 1973-1977, in May
refused a request by a French judge to answer questions about
the disappearances or killings of French citizens under
Pinochet.
Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited.
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