British Medical Association criticises Straw over Pinochet results

The British Medical Association has criticised the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, for keeping secret the results of medical tests on the former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet. Mr Straw has said the tests show the general is unfit to be sent for trial in a Spanish court, but he insists that the details are confidential.

The chairman of the medical association's ethics committee, Michael Wilks, said the doctors involved had been acting in a forensic capacity, and their opinions should be disclosed and tested in court. The Spanish judge who initiated extradition proceedings against General Pinochet has asked to see the medical report.

Mr Straw is expected to rule soon on whether the 84-year-old general, who has been under house arrest in Britain for the past 15 months, can escape extradition to Spain to face torture charges. Human rights groups and the Spanish judge who wants to see Pinochet stand trial have asked to see the medical report because they cannot lodge meaningful objections unless they know what it says. "We asked the senator's representatives to agree that the medical report be disclosed to the kingdom of Spain. They refused," Mr Straw told BBC radio.

Chile's "Operation Return" to fly Pinochet home in a medically-equipped Boeing 707 is waiting on the tarmac at a Bermuda airport until Britain confirms he has escaped extradition.

Pinochet is wanted in Spain to face trial on torture charges stemming from the latter part of his 1973-1990 military regime. More than 3,000 people died or disappeared while Pinochet ruled Chile after ousting socialist President Salvador Allende in a bloody coup in 1973.