TORTURE REPORT

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33654, 2 October 1974, Page 17

TORTURE REPORT

Chile expels Australian I (N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright / CANBERRA, October 1. I Miss Alexandra Lamas, aged 27, the daughter of the (Hollywood film star, (Fernando Lamas, is being expelled from Chile, and will be flown back to her home in Sydney, the Australian Attorney-General (Senator Lionel Murphy) has announced. ! He told the Senate that [Miss Lamas, a naturalised (Australian who has been detained by Chilean authorities for the last three weeks, would be deported within 48 hours. Senator Murphy said that according to reports reaching Australia, Miss Lamas, who was employed by the Chilean airline, Lan Chile, in Sydney, was detained for taking subversive material into Chile. As far as Senator Murphy knew, she had not been formally charged with any offence. The Attorney-General’s statement came as a Chilean Embassy spokesman announced that Miss Lamas would leave Santiago by air today. The spokesman added that Miss Lamas would be banned [from entering Chile again, and would not be re- ; employed by Lan Chile. He denied Australian reports that she had been tortured while in custody, describing I these as nonsense. Dr John McCarthy, a 'friend of the Lamas family and a member of the Chile Action Committee in Australia, has said that he has ! information, from unnamed [sources, that Miss Lamas was seized at gunpoint, taken from her Santiago hotel, and [tortured; and that she was found guilty of smuggling [funds into Chile for the LeftIwing Opposition.