Chile charged two former officers in Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship Tuesday with being the "co-authors" of the torture that killed the father of former president Michelle Bachelet.
Alberto Bachelet was arrested in 1973 and court-martialed for treason for having been a member of president Salvador Allende's government prior to his overthrow by Pinochet's military junta.
Retired air force colonels Ramon Caceres and Edgar Ceballos were arrested on Tuesday and charged with being the "co-authors of the crime of torture that caused the death" of Bachelet, Judge Mario Carroza said.
Bachelet, an air force brigadier general who opposed Pinochet's 1973 coup, was imprisoned until his death on March 12, 1974, when he was said to have died of a heart attack at the age of 51.
A medical report ordered by the courts and released in June concluded that Bachelet died as a direct result of the torture he suffered during his confinement.
"Now, in this country, we can expect the justice system to do its job," Bachelet's widow Angela Jeria said in reaction to the arrests. "So many people have lost their lives and the causes were never even investigated."
Caceres and Ceballos are accused of orchestrating Bachelet's "cruel and inhuman, and humiliating, treatment" at the Air Force War Academy in Santiago, Carroza's statement said.
Following their arrest, they were transferred to the El Bosque Air Base in the capital.
As part of the trial proceedings, Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile between 2006 and 2010 and the current head of UN Women, testified alongside her mother about their illegal detention at torture centers in 1975.
After their release, the two women fled the country to exile. Michelle Bachelet returned in 1979.
Some 3,000 people were murdered under Pinochet's 1973-1990 regime, while another 37,000 people are believed to have been imprisoned and tortured, according to rights groups.