Pinochet medical reports released

Home Secretary Jack Straw has made available the medical reports which concluded that General Augusto Pinochet was unfit to stand trial.

The papers - produced by four doctors who examined the 84-year-old in January - have been placed in the House of Commons library.

Mr Straw's move comes after Spanish newspapers published leaked copies of the reports on 16 February.

In the principal document the doctors listed Pinochet's ailments as including: asthma; diabetes; heart problems; problems with his left knee; a history of gout; deafness; spinal problems; memory defects; and Parkinson-like features.

They concluded "There is clinical evidence of widespread damage to the brain."

Despite finding he could physically attend a trial, they said he could not "meaningfully" participate in it mentally, and said improvement of the general's condition was unlikely.

'Condition not faked'

In a letter to the Home Office dated January 7, the government's Chief Medical Officer Prof Liam Donaldson said he found the medical experts' assessment "extremely thorough".

"This authoritative medical report leaves me no reason to doubt the specialists' judgment that the Senator is not fit to stand trial and that his present condition is not one which would be expected to improve," he said.

He said the report also made it clear that the general's condition could not be feigned.

The team which wrote the principal report was made up of Prof Sir John Grimley Evans, Professor of Clinical Geratology at the University of Oxford; Dr Michael Denham, Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine at Northwick Park Hospital in London; and Professor Andrew Lees, Professor of Neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.

Dr Maria Wyke, a Consultant Neuropsychologist at London's Devonshire Hospital, provided an additional report.