The official line is that he's been allowed to go, not because of any kind of immunity but he's because he's lost his marbles, and wouldn't be able to stand trial.

But I can't see why, once the decsiion had been made that he should be deported to Spain, the decision as to whether he was fit to stand trial shouldn't have been left to the Spanish to decide, where the doctors and the judges all speak the same language as him. After all the legal system in Spain is much easier on old people than the one in England.I just can't see what it had to do with the British government at all.

What I suspect happened is that Pinochet was in a position to threaten important poeople in America with telling then truth about US involvement in the Chile coup, and important people in America were in a position to tell Jack Straw what to do.

Anyway, good riddance.Too bad he can't take his crony Thatcher with him.