LONDON, SEPT 28: Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet stood accused on Monday of operating a systematic campaign of torture to subdue his opponents, as hearings to extradite him to Spain finally got underway here.Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) listed 34 alleged specific cases of torture and one of conspiracy to torture, all dating from December 1988 to December 1989.The charges "constitute some of the most serious allegations of crime ever to come before English criminal courts," said CPS barrister Alun Jones.Pinochet, 83, who is under house arrest, was not at Bowstreet Magistrates Court in Central London for the opening of the cases, which is expected to run for most of the week.In ailing health, according to his allies, he was excused attendance until magistrate Ronald Bartle gives his verdict, expected in mid-October.The hearing was later adjourned until Tuesday.More than 3,000 people disappeared during Pinochet's 17-year rule, which lasted from when he took power in a coupin 1973 till he handed over to a civilian government in 1990.It took the clerk 15 minutes to read out the charges, which bring to a climax nearly one year of diplomatic wrangling since Pinochet was arrested in a private London clinic last October 16.Allegations include electric shocks, beatings, sexual abuse and threats to rape. In five cases, death followed.
