Chile arrests suspects over Jara killing in '73

Joan Turner-Jara called on the United States to extradite one of them, Pedro Barrientos Nunez, who lives in Florida.

Progressive folk singer Mr Jara, a member of the Communist Party of Chile, was rounded up with other figures thought likely to resist Pinochet's brutal US-backed dictatorship on September 16 1973.

He was taken to the Chile Stadium - now the Victor Jara stadium - and tortured, with officers breaking the bones in his hands before demanding he play the guitar.

He died after being shot 44 times.

Judge Miguel Vazquez issued charges last week against eight men believed to be involved. Mr Barrientos, along with Hugo Sanchez Marmonti, has been charged with murder and the other six are accused of being accomplices to the crime.

The defendants all deny their guilt.

Speaking to supporters in the stadium alongside her two daughters, British-born Ms Turner-Jara urged Chile's Supreme Court to formally request Mr Barrientos's extradition from the US as advised by Mr Vazquez.

She said the case could not only solve her husband's murder but would provide hope for many other families. Hardly any of the 1973-90 dictatorship's thousands of victims' deaths have been conclusively investigated.

Mr Vazquez said former military officers were still unwilling to speak to investigators, making prosecutions difficult.

The Jara family's lawyer Nelson Caucoto said the Chilean military still denies having any information about which officers were assigned to the stadium in September 1973.

Most information has come from surviving prisoners or conscripts.

Mr Barrientos and one of the alleged accomplices, Edwin Dimter, have both previously been accused of being "the prince," an as yet unidentified officer remembered by Pinochet victims incarcerated in the stadium for whipping and torturing prisoners.