Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet will be interrogated on Saturday over the death of 19 opponents during his 17-year rule, Judge Juan Guzman said on Friday.

The hearing will take place at Pinochet's residence in the luxurious Santiago neighborhood of La Dehesa at 11:00 a.m. local time (1500 GMT).

The former leader will be interrogated for his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of 19 people as part of the Operation Condor, a conspiracy of the country's military dictatorship in the1970s to eliminate left-wing opponents, according to judicial sources.

Pinochet, 88, who took power by ousting constitutional president Salvador Allende in 1973, has faced hundreds of charges of homicide, kidnapping and torture.

According to official figures, some 3,000 people were killed or missing during his regime.

The Santiago Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled out any postponement of the hearing demanded by Pinochet's lawyers, who said he was unfit for a legal procedure due to his poor health.

"The hearing is imprudent because he is not in conditions to withstand the interrogation," said chief lawyer Pablo Rodriguez.

It will be Pinochet's second encounter with Judge Guzman, who placed the former dictator under house arrest for six weeks in 2001 and accused him of organizing the "Death of Caravan," a military band which executed tens of opponents shortly after the 1973 coup.

Chile's Supreme Court acquitted Pinochet in July 2002 by declaring the former president suffered from "irreversible mental insanity" and was physically unfit to stand trial.

Source: Xinhua