They are also expected to maintain that whether Chilean laws were broken is not a matter for the Lords to decide.The general’s lawyers are also expected to argue against the admission of evidence from the Spanish extradition request, and evidence gathered since the last Lords hearing into the case one month ago, which quashed a ruling by an earlier Lords panel that General Pinochet should face charges.Intense lobbying has begun from both sides. Preparations included setting aside properties for use as torture centres, and the requisition and distribution of torture equipment.In the rehearing of the former Chilean dictator’s case before the Lords, the Crown Prosecution Service will also emphasise how many of the tortures and murders were carried out in the time between the coup in September 1973, when General Pinochet became head of the military junta, and December 1974, when he made himself “President of the Republic”.The CPS will also argue that the former dictator broke his own country’s laws in overthrowing the legally elected government of Salvador Allende.General Pinochet’s lawyers are expected to object to the CPS being allowed to present this argument which, they claim, was not put before the original High Court hearing, which found the general to be immune from prosecution. The Crown Prosecution Service will introduce this evidence to support its argument that General Pinochet does not have immunity from prosecution as a former head of state, in the hearing before the law lords that starts today.
The Spanish government, which is seeking General Pinochet’s extradition, alleges that before the coup against the government of Salvador Allende in September 1973 General Pinochet and fellow conspirators agreed on the elimination of opponents, once they were in power.They also agreed to the use of “hideous” tortures including sexual assaults as a punitive policy. THE FORMER Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet conspired with fellow military leaders to torture and murder women and children before he came to power, according to extradition request documents from the Spanish government. ONE IN seven adult Mancunians has had a County Court Judgment (CCJ) registered against them in the past six years and could thus be barred from obtaining credit, says a report issued today. Experian, Europe’s biggest credit reference agency, concluded that one in 14 adults in England and Wales was in danger of being credit blacklisted because of an outstanding CCJ.
The study found that after Manchester, Hull was second in the CCJ league table with one in eight adults having one registered against them.At the other end of the scale just one in 28 adults in Tynedale, Northumberland, had a CCJ against their name.”County Court Judgments are one of the main barriers to obtaining credit,” a spokeswoman for Experian said.”If you end up with a CCJ, pay it off within a month of the court order – if you do this then the CCJ will not blemish your credit history.”If you don’t, the CCJ will stay on your credit file for six years whether it is paid or not.”Many lenders do take notice of whether or not a CCJ has been paid,” she added.County Court Judgments are usually imposed for non-payment of consumer debt – relating to credit cards, personal loans and water bills, for example.. “I was dealing with young, attractive women and of course they hated that.
I love women and have been very privileged to have had some beautiful ones as my patients.” He also said his career had been deliberately destroyed to instil fear into doctors.. Have they been hurt? Or have they just come out of the woodwork because there is a smell of money there?”He blamed jealousy among colleagues for his downfall. If you analyse the work of all busy gynaecologists across the land, you would have a similar pattern in 90 per cent of them,” he said.Commenting on the claims of the women, he said: “I cannot believe they are sick. Mr Ledward, 60, an NHS consultant at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent,said he had been the victim of “doctor-bashing” and claimed the women who complained about his treatment were motivated by the “smell of money”.
At its hearing in September, the General Medical Council found the care provided by Mr Ledward, self-styled the fastest gynaecologist in the South-east, had fallen “lamentably below the standard the public requires”.One patient’s bladder was perforated during an operation and another woman’s ovaries were removed without consent during a hysterectomy.Since the case 418 women have called the hospital worried about their treatment and over 120 are considering legal action.Yesterday, Mr Ledward told a Sunday newspaper that he refused to accept there had been complications in as many as one-third of the women he had operated on.”I simply don’t believe it.
Tiger parts were found on sale in Tokyo, Yokohama, Amsterdam and New York, but not in any British city.. THE DISGRACED gynaecologist Rodney Ledward, who was struck off the Medical Register last September and is said to have maimed dozens of women, launched an astonishing counter-attack yesterday. In 1995, in Operation Charm, a team from Scotland Yard raided 12 medicine shops in the Chinese communities of London, Birmingham and Manchester and found illegal products, mainly tiger parts, in every one: 11 were prosecuted and fined.But just over a year ago the Environmental Investigation Agency carried out an undercover survey of pharmacies selling traditional Chinese remedies in Japan, the United States, the Netherlands and the UK. They will start by meeting representatives of Britain’s own Chinese medicine practitioners on Thursday.In fact-finding missions to a total of 14 counties, they will also closely examine anti-poaching measures, which in some states are virtually non- existent.A follow-up series of high-level missions later in the year, headed by Mr Hepworth, will seek to gain the agreement of government ministers for remedial action.”We must prevent the relentless illegal trade in body parts from driving the tiger to extinction,” Mr Meacher said.Britain’s own efforts to do this seem to be working.
It is very important that we keep these people on board.”The CITES officials will be meeting ethnic Chinese communities in a number of countries to raise awareness of the illegal trade, explain its consequences for the tiger and seek co-operation in ending it. There are plenty of substitutes that can be used.”But it is important that we take the traditional Chinese medicine community with us We have tried to do that in the UK. Many hundreds of millions of people depend on it and in most cases it’s fine We just need to ensure it doesn’t use tiger parts. They are thought to contain powers that can be passed on to those who consume them. But their use is outlawed in 145 countries which are signatories to CITES, including China.Almost all parts of the animal are used in drugs and potions – even the whiskers, which are said to be a cure for laziness. Ground bone is especially popular in many remedies and is even used in “tiger wine”.Mr Hepworth said: “Traditional Chinese medicine is not going to go away and nor do we want it to.
