Lucia Pinochet Hiriart, the eldest daughter of Chile's former leader Augusto Pinochet, has asked for political asylum in the United States, after fleeing Chile to evade tax evasion charges, but was arrested upon arrival in Washington, Chile's interior ministry said Wednesday.

At the request of Chilean judge Carlos Cerda, Lucia Pinochet was arrested on her arrival from Argentina at Dulles International Airport in Washington on Wednesday.

Reports from the United States said her visa has been revoked.

Judge Cerda ordered the prosecution of the Pinochet family on charges of tax evasion and use of forged passports in a case known as the Riggs case, which involved the transfer of money from the former leader's accounts to a bank in the United States.

Lucia Pinochet fled Chile on Sunday to Argentina after crossing the border at Los Libertadores, a Chilean city on the Andes frontier with Mendoza, Argentina.

According to the judgment issued by Cerda, Lucia Pinochet invested more than what she had declared from 1994 to 2005, and did not declare interests on foreign-held accounts, evading a total of 855,000 U.S.dollars in taxes.

The Argentine government said it had never received the international arrest warrant against Lucia Pinochet issued by Chile's courts.

On Monday, Cerda ordered the arrest of Lucia Pinochet's mother, Lucia Hiriart; Pinochet's children, Ines Lucia, Veronica, Jacqueline and Marco Antonio, as well as Marco Antonio's wife Soledad Olave. The family has been accused of defrauding 6 million dollars.

Source: Xinhua