4 Dec 2009

Chilean singer's body reburied with honour

9:31 pm on 4 December 2009

The remains of popular Chilean singer Victor Jara have been reburied in the capital, Santiago, 36 years after he was killed following a military coup.

Hundreds of people paid their final respects to one of the most prominent victims of the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power in 1973.

The BBC reports that the singer's widow Joan Turner, an English-born dancer, stood by her husband's coffin and greeted guests, who included artists, human rights activists and government officials.

Mr Jara was among thousands of people rounded up and taken to a Santiago stadium where he was tortured and killed.

Authorities reopened the investigation into his death last year, after new evidence was presented by his family. When his body was exhumed in June it was established that he had been shot more than 30 times.

Earlier this year a former army conscript, Jose Adolfo Paredes Marquez, was charged over the killing.

More than 3000 people were killed or disappeared during the period of military rule in Chile, which lasted from 1973 to 1990.