Chile court upholds payment to former dictatorship prisoners

SANTIAGO, Chile – Chile’s Supreme Court says the government must pay a total of $3.2 million to 71 former political prisoners who’d been held by the military dictatorship of 1973 to 1990.

The ruling announced Monday upholds a lower court decision rejecting the government’s contention that the statute of limitations had expired.

The plaintiffs are among nearly 37.000 former prisoners of the military regime headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet certified by a special commission. It also confirmed that more than 3,000 were killed.

Families of those killed receive a small monthly indemnity, as do former prisoners.