Wednesday, December 9, 1998 Published at 15:09 GMT
Pinochet ruling 'imminent'
Law Lords voted that Gen Pinochet was not entitled to immunity
Lawyers for the human rights group Amnesty International are in the High Court asking for deferment of implementation of any decision by Home Secretary Jack Straw in the Pinochet case.
The government has refused to speculate on when the decision will be made but Legal Affairs Correspondent Joshua Rozenberg says Amnesty's lawyers are simply trying to buy time.
"What they are trying to find out is whether they have got any right to be heard because they are not strictly speaking to a party to this case."
An opinion poll, conducted by ICM for The Guardian newspaper, has found the UK split on the future of General Pinochet.
Some 36% of those polled said he should be allowed to return to Chile while 34% were keen on him being extradited to stand trial in Spain and 30% were undecided.
The advert was paid for by more than 300 signatories, including actresses Emma Thompson and Juliet Stevenson, musicians Billy Bragg and Peter Gabriel, playwright Harold Pinter and lawyer Michael Mansfield, QC.
His lawyer, Michael Caplan, told BBC News Online: "It's difficult to say exactly what is going to happen. It's really a case of wait and see but it's open to either side to apply for judicial review of his decision."
The Chilean Government is expected to spirit him away from his mansion at Wentworth, in Surrey, to a waiting aircraft at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire as soon as possible.
But lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service, representing the Spanish Government, would head straight for the High Court in a bid to get a stay of proceedings pending a full judicial review of Mr Straw's ruling.
If Mr Straw does agree to extradition he is likely to spark off more huge demonstrations in Chile, where British Embassy officials are keeping a low profile.
Such a decision, which must be made by Friday, is also likely to be challenged by General Pinochet's lawyers.
They may well raise the subject of Lord Hoffmann, the Law Lord whose vote won the day for supporters of the extradition process, who is a director of a charity linked to Amnesty International.
But the home secretary is rarely overruled by the High Court. Earlier this year Mr Straw's decision to impose natural life tariffs on Moors Murderer Myra Hindley was upheld after a similar judicial review.