The following year, Gen Pinochet lost the country's first democratic poll for nearly two decades. But he retained the title of commander-in-chief of the armed forces � a position that shielded him from prosecution and which he used to stifle moves to investigate human rights abuses during his rule.

He relinquished this post in 1998, only to take up a parliamentary seat as a senator-for-life, another position he had created for himself - again immune from prosecution.