Santiago: A right-wing lawmaker in Chile was arrested Thursday on charges of involvement in the 1981 killing of three radical leftists opposed to the regime of late dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Rosauro Martinez, a Congressman for the conservative National Renewal party, was the head of the army`s Fourth Division in the 1980s when a commando company under his authority allegedly assassinated three members of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR).
The 64-year-old lawmaker was detained in the southern city of Valdivia on the same day Chile marked the 41st anniversary of the coup that launched Pinochet`s 17-year rule.
Chile`s Supreme Court stripped Martinez of his congressional immunity over the case in June.
About 60 former military members are currently serving prison sentences for human rights violations during the dictatorship, when 3,200 people were killed and 38,000 tortured, according to government figures.
