A Chilean woman living in Oxford spoke today of her heartbreaking hunt for her sister's fiance, missing for 25 years.

Helia Lopez Zarzosa, 49, of Cumnor Hill, told the Oxford Mail how her family was tortured during General Pinochet's regime in the 1970s.

Last night she joined protests outside the London clinic where the former dictator is being held pending possible extradition to Spain.

She said her mother, brother and former husband were tortured during the rule of the 82-year-old general, under which more than 1,000 people are alleged to have been killed.

Mrs Zarzosa said: "We want those who committed these atrocities to be brought to justice. People became very frightened of his tyranny."

She fled Chile and has lived in Oxford for a year, where she is applying to study for a PhD degree. Her sister Maria never married and now lives in Europe.

Mrs Zarzosa's nightmare began when her sister's husband-to-be, Hector Carcamo, was arrested a week after Augusto Pinochet seized power in September 1973.

Mr Carcamo, a philosophy student, was accused of being the leader of the Revolutionary Movement of the Left - which was untrue. He was tortured and is feared dead.

Mrs Zarzosa said: "I went to the morgue and there were all these corpses lying there, and the officer was asking us whether we could recognise him. Some of them were so badly tortured you could not recognise them unless you knew their teeth."

She added: "Right from the start, when I went with his mother to ask for his birth certificate, she was told, 'Are you sure you had a son?'." Later that year it was alleged Hector's body was at the morgue. But his identity card did not match and his death was never confirmed.

In 1977, the Chilean foreign ministry told Mr Carcamo's family he had died in 1973 - leaving them wondering if their son was secretly being held in a concentration camp.

Mrs Zarzosa added: "His mother was expecting every single day that he was going to come home alive. She was always changing his bed. She never lost hope and she died two years ago."

General Pinochet was being treated for a back injury when he was arrested in London on Friday after a request from two Spanish judges.

The Spanish want Pinochet extradited to answer claims that he was involved in the torture and murder of 79 Spanish citizens. He cannot be tried at home due to his status as a Chilean life senator. Chile has officially protested at his arrest. British court bid GENERAL Pinochet may face action in the British courts brought by torture victims exiled here.

Any action in a British court will take precedence over his requested extradition to Spain. Former victims in Britain are understood to be seeking damages in a civil action.

The diplomatic row deepened as the Chilean ambassador delivered a letter of protest to the Foreign Office.

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