Pinochet Agrees to Tests as Judge Postpones Hearing
At the same time, investigating judge Juan Guzman postponed questioning of 85-year-old Pinochet about human rights abuses from Tuesday to next Monday.
The moves came as, in Santiago, about 1,000 protesters demanded that Pinochet be tried for some of the 3,000 killings and disappearances that took place under his 1973-1990 dictatorship.
They also protested that military documents handed over Friday by church representatives to President Ricardo Lagos on people who disappeared during Pinochet's rule were only sketchy.
The handover was a gesture of reconciliation by the military, which is hoping for an end to criminal proceedings against its members for human rights abuses.
But there was widespread outrage at admissions that 130 of the victims of the military clampdown under Pinochet had been dumped in the sea or rivers, while the fate of others remained unclear.
Judge Guzman ordered Pinochet to undergo psychological tests on Thursday or Friday this week to assess whether he is fit to stand trial over atrocities committed under his rule.
Pinochet had ignored an order to undergo testing last weekend and rejected a demand to show up at a hearing set for Tuesday, arguing that the test results would not be ready be then.
But his lawyers changed their strategy late Monday in an attempt to prevent Pinochet being placed under house arrest, after an appeals court confirmed the date of the hearing.
The defense team provided residential details for Pinochet, the address of his home in Bucalemu, 130 kilometers southwest of the capital, where the hearing is scheduled to take place.
Chile's Supreme Court on Friday had indirectly lent their seal of approval to a medical exam of the general to determine his fitness for trial.
By a 15-2 vote, the justices rejected Pinochet's request to reprimand Guzman. Pinochet's lawyers argued that Guzman had a hostile bias against Pinochet.
(DPA)