A former Sydney nanny and cleaner accused by Chile of being a torturer and kidnapper for Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship in the 1970s will be extradited to Chile to face court over kidnapping allegations after losing her seven-year battle to remain in Australia.
Adriana Elcira Rivas, now in her 70s, is accused of participating in the disappearances of seven people in 1976 – including a woman who was five months pregnant – while working for Pinochet’s secret police force.
Rivas emigrated to Australia in 1978 and worked as a nanny in Bondi before she was arrested by New South Wales police in 2019 at the request of the Chilean government.
She has been in custody for seven years as she resisted attempts to extradite her to the South American nation to face trial for seven counts of aggravated kidnapping.
She denies the allegations and has argued that her extradition to Chile should be blocked because it would result in her being tried for crimes against humanity.
But the argument that the offences had been mischaracterised was “misconceived”, Justice Michael Lee told the federal court in Sydney on Tuesday.
“The materials do not suggest the offence for which extradition is sought is anything other than the offences identified throughout the request … namely aggravated kidnapping,” he said.
Rivas’ contention that the government failed to consider the time limit for prosecuting the kidnapping offences had expired was similarly flawed, the judge determined.
“The applicant has failed to demonstrate that the minister’s decision was affected by jurisdictional error,” Lee said.
The ambassador and consul general of Chile sat in the public gallery as the decision was handed down.
Families of Chileans who vanished or were killed during Pinochet’s rule had packed the courtroom during the two-day hearing but were not able to be in the court for the decision.
Tens of thousands of Chileans came to Australia after the dictator violently overthrew the nation’s elected socialist government in a 1973 coup.
About 40,000 people were killed, tortured or imprisoned for political reasons before the end of his reign in 1990.
Rivas is accused of playing a role in a national intelligence directorate brigade that physically and psychologically tortured members of the Communist party who opposed Pinochet’s regime.
Adriana Navarro, who represents the families, previously said more than 1,100 Chileans had still not been found.
“We have a very good idea of what happened to them and we think Ms Rivas may do too,” Navarro said outside court during the hearing.
