The Santiago court of appeal said on Monday it freed on bail the eldest daughter of former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet, two days after she was arrested on tax invasion charges.

Lucia Pinochet Hiriart, 64, who was accused of tax evasion on 856,000 U.S. dollars and passport fraud, must pay a 3-million pesos bail (around 5,500 dollars), the court said in a statement.

Hugo Ortiz Filippi, Lucia Pinochet's defense lawyer, said the court's ruling was in line with the law.

"Provisional liberty is practically obligatory, in cases that do not carry serious sentences," he said.

Lucia Pinochet was jailed in the Santiago military police school on Saturday, after she returned home from Argentina, following a trip to the United States.

Arriving in the United States on Jan. 22, Lucia Pinochet requested political asylum. However, Washington refused her request and revoked her tourist visa.

Chilean judge Carlos Cerda is charging Augusto Pinochet, 90, his wife and five children of using false passports and tax evasion on some 6.5 million dollars transferred to Pinochet's foreign bank accounts.

The former general was charged last year with tax evasion on an estimated 27 million dollars in previously undisclosed foreign bank accounts, which came to light after a U.S. Senate investigation into banking irregularities at Washington-based Riggs Bank.

Source: Xinhua