SANTIAGO, Chile, April 10 (UPI) -- A group of Chilean citizens filed a lawsuit against all former members of Chile's secret police under dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
The criminal suit, filed by members of the Association of Relatives of Disappeared Persons, names around 1,500 former members of Chile's National Intelligence Directorate. Many of the defendants named are still high-profile figures in politics and law enforcement.
Among the defendants is Providencia Mayor Cristian Labbe, who The Santiago Times said is possibly the most high profile figure on the list. Labbe has been connected via military documentation to a Sept. 11, 1973, parachute operation in which 11 rural citizens were shot to death.
Deputy Hugo Gutierrez, a member of the human rights commission in the Chamber of Deputies, worked with lawyer Boris Paredes on the written complaint submitted to Parliament Monday.
Even though it has been 22 years since the end of Pinochet's regime, Guitierrez says a formal lawsuit is important.
"Chilean society cannot remain unmoved by the events that occurred," Gutierrez said. "It is a necessary action to achieve a more ethical society. These people are mayors, deputies, conducting classes in universities. There were many crimes committed."
