A judge investigating the disappearance of five French nationals during the rule of Augusto Pinochet issued 15 international warrants of arrest on Thursday against henchmen of the former Chilean dictator, a judicial source said.
Most of the 15 are former generals in the Chiliean army, who ordered the French nationals into custody or aided their detention.
An arrest warrant was issued for General Manuel Contreras, 72, the founder of Pinochet's infamous secret police force.
Also sought is Paul Schaefer, 79, founder of the Colonia Dignididad (Colony of Dignity), a large Andean region where many political dissidents were detained during Pinochet's violent rule from 1973 to 1990.
Judge Roger Le Loire issued the arrest warrants for "sequestration accompanied by torture" and will submit them to Interpol and Chilean authorities.
The ailing Pinochet has been charged in Chile as an accessory to the murder or kidnappings of 75 political opponents a month after his bloody rise to power in a 1973 coup, but has been deemed to ill to stand trial -- Paris, (AFP)
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