By AL GOODMAN

          MADRID, Spain -- A Spanish judge indicted Gen. Augusto Pinochet Thursday "for the crimes of
          genocide, terrorism and torture" during his 17-year dictatorship in Chile, a key step toward his
          trial in Madrid if he is eventually extradited from Britain.

          The 285-page indictment lays out the most detailed case to date against Pinochet, 83, who has been
          under arrest in London since Oct. 16. It will be sent to support a Spanish extradition request, which
          Britain's home secretary ruled on Wednesday could go forward in English courts. Extradition
          proceedings could last for months.

          After Pinochet's 1973 coup, the indictment charges, he created and led a "criminal organization"
          supported by Chile and five other South American countries to kill or cause the disappearance of about
          3,000 opponents of his right-wing regime.

          Judge Baltasar Garzon, who drew up the indictment, also issued the arrest warrant for Pinochet in
          October and later decreed a worldwide embargo on his assets, which the indictment reiterated. It
          declared that Pinochet is "provisionally" liable for undetermined civil damages stemming from the
          human rights charges.

          The judge has so far asked investigators to search for Pinochet's assets only in the United States,
          Switzerland and Luxembourg, and the search has only just begun, a Madrid court official said.

          The charge of genocide is included in the indictment, even though Home Secretary Jack Straw ruled
          that genocide was not an extraditable crime in Britain.

          The final charges will depend on the extradition conditions set by the English courts and the Spanish
          court's interpretation of them, said Manuel Murillo, a Madrid lawyer for families of the victims of
          repression in Chile.

          Garzon's indictment detailed a "fierce repression" that it said began with Pinochet's coup on Sept. 11,
          1973, which ousted President Salvador Allende Gossens, and continued until 1990.

          After consolidating control in Chile, the indictment says, Pinochet arranged for coordinated repression
          against Chileans and citizens of other countries with the help of military leaders in Argentina, Paraguay,
          Bolivia, Uruguay and Brazil.

          It named more than 2,500 victims, including Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean foreign minister, and
          an American, Ronni Moffitt, who died when a bomb exploded in their car in Washington in 1976. The
          indictment says the bombing was carried out by Chile's secret police on orders from Pinochet.

          In London, meanwhile, Pinochet's lawyers asked the House of Lords Thursday to reconsider its
          judgment last month that Pinochet does not enjoy sovereign immunity from arrest.

          A spokesman for the five Law Lords, who make up England's highest court, said no one had ever tried
          to appeal one of the court's decisions. The petition will be discussed by a committee of the Law Lords,
          who will decide whether to have a full appeal hearing.

          Thursday's petition was believed to center on a charge of potential bias against Lord Hoffmann, who
          cast the decisive vote in the 3-2 decision and who, it has emerged, has been an unpaid director of a
          charity for Amnesty International since 1990. A lawyer for Amnesty and other rights groups was
          permitted to take part in the presentation of the case against Pinochet.
 

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