The Chilean Supreme Court has ruled that the country's former military dictator, General Augusto Pinochet, is fit to stand trial over the disappearance of political opponents in the 1970s.
Pinochet, who ruled Chile for 17 years after leading a 1973 coup, must now face human rights charges related to Operation Colombo, in which 119 members of an armed revolutionary group disappeared in 1975.
The panel of five judges from the Santiago-based Supreme Court ruled to reject the defence argument that Pinochet's health problems made him unfit to face a criminal process.
He will face charges in six cases of people who disappeared during his dictatorship.
The Supreme Court is still considering a separate appeal motion from the defence for three other cases related to the Colombo disappearances.
In the past five years, Chile's courts have thrown out three human rights cases against Pinochet because of his poor health, but some doctors on a new court-ordered medical panel have said he had exaggerated his symptoms.
Pinochet has been under house arrest since late November on other human rights charges.
In November he was indicted for tax fraud and other crimes related to some $27 million hidden in foreign bank accounts.
The Pinochet regime is accused of covering up the Operation Colombo deaths by planting false news stories saying that members of the Revolutionary Leftist Movement killed each other in an internal dispute and armed confrontation.
