SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A Chilean exile living in the United Kingdom has won a lawsuit for compensation for torture he suffered during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Leopoldo Garcia Lucero sought moral damages from the Chilean government through the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in Costa Rica, the BBC reported Saturday.
The ruling was the court's first on a claim against Chile by a survivor of human rights abuses from the Pinochet era.
Garcia, 80, alleged he was arrested in September 1973 for his political beliefs -- he was a socialist -- and detained for nearly two years.
He was tortured during his detainment and suffered permanent disabled due to spinal damage.
"I'm alive," Garcia told the BBC. "But it feels like a living death."
After his release in 1975, Garcia was forced into exile by ministerial decree and has been living in the United Kingdom since then.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled the Chilean government violated Garcia's human rights by failing to complete and investigation into his claims for more than 16 years.
The court ordered Chile to complete the investigation and pay Garcia compensation for moral damages.
