Chilean judge orders ex-military members held in priest's disappearance during dictatorship

Published May 21, 2015

A Chilean judge is ordering the detention of 14 retired military members and four former police officials in the disappearance of the Rev. Michael Woodward during the country's dictatorship.

Friday's decision by Judge Jaime Arancibia is a shift in the case, which had been dismissed. Persistence of the family and new evidence led to it being reopened.

The detainees include two former vice admirals and four captains.

According to the judge, the priest of Chilean and British origin was detained in September 1973 at a university in the port city of Valparaiso and kept at various naval facilities, where he was tortured. His body was later delivered to a naval hospital.

More than 3,000 people were killed or disappeared during the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

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