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Chile to Chancery Lane

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07 August 2008 / Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC
Issue: 7333 / Categories: Features
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Geoffrey Bindman warns against complacency about human rights…at home and abroad

Early in 1974 I went to Chile on behalf of the Labour Party. The aim was to witness the expected show trial of former ministers of the democratically elected Allende government which had been overthrown in a bloody military coup led by Augusto Pinochet in September 1973.

As it happened the trial did not take place but the experience was nonetheless immensely stimulating, if at times alarming. I stayed in a hotel in Santiago opposite the partially destroyed palace where Allende himself had been killed on the first day of the coup in a bombing raid by planes of Chile's own air force. Armed soldiers filled the streets and shots were frequently heard at night, but, during daylight it was safe to move about freely. With the help of the British embassy, I was taken to see the former ministers, who were detained in a converted youth camp on the Pacific coast.

I contacted local lawyers and the Bar Association. Many

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