IP: from Reuters -- have the UK judges gone mad or is the reporting wrong or have they forgotten Nuremberg

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

GENEVA, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Geneva's public prosecutor, who this week issued an arrest warrant for Augusto Pinochet, said on Wednesday he was ``deeply shocked'' by a British court ruling that the former Chilean dictator had immunity. 

``If we want to fight sincerely against genocidal behaviour, one cannot invoke the immunity of heads of state,'' the official, Bernard Bertossa, told the Swiss news agency ATS. 

Earlier, the High Court in London -- where Pinochet has been held in a clinic since October 16 on an extradition request from a Spanish judge -- ruled that he was immune from arrest because he was head of state at the time of crimes he is alleged to have committed. 

Bertossa said this meant that only people who carried out the policies of leaders could be prosecuted. 
``If we exaggerate a little, this would mean that while (Nazi German foreign minister Joachim von) Ribbentrop could be prosecuted...Hitler would get immunity,'' the Geneva prosecutor said.