But as with all legal decisions, we can only speculate. The answer is typical of his style, deflecting questions inviting opinion or personal reflection into strictly legal channels. Mr Garces was an adviser to President Salvador Allende when General Pinochet's forces bombed the presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, on 11 September 1973, causing Allende's death. The young Spanish lawyer, among the last to see his boss alive, slipped to safety thanks to the intervention of the Spanish ambassador. He has been working patiently ever since to bring Pinochet to trial for human rights abuses, and tomorrow, in Bow Street magistrates' court, London, extradition proceedings will begin.
Justice takes time, but it gets there.
For years, in the Cold War, the international community closed its eyes to crimes against humanity that international agreements could have punished. You do justice when you can. The lawyer himself is in no hurry. He has spent years gathering harrowing testimonies from families of Gen Pinochet's victims who despaired of ever getting justice. The cases form the bulk of the indictment drawn up by Judge Baltasar Garzon who ordered Gen Pinochet's arrest in London last October and seeks his extradition to Spain.