Judge postpones Pinochet's booking
( 2001-05-01 11:31 ) (7 )

An appeals court here ruled to delay until May 18 the booking of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who has been ordered to stand trial on charges stemming from crimes committed during his military rule.

Defense lawyer Ambrosio Rodriguez said the delay was allowed on grounds of Pinochet's poor health.

Chile's former strongman, now aged 85, is under house arrest awaiting trial as an accessory to the murder and kidnapping of some 75 political foes in the weeks after the bloody September 1973 coup which brought him to power.

The procedure to take Pinochet's fingerprints, and his picture in profile -- part of the official booking process that occurs in Chile and other parts of the world -- is seen as an unprecedented event involving a former head of state.