In Chile, a former military officer who was convicted for the 1973 murder of poet Victor Jara killed himself yesterday.

86-year retired Brigadier Hernan Chacon Soto, took his life after receiving a 25-year prison sentence handed down by the Supreme Court this week.

According to police sources, when he was about to be arrested at his home in capital Santiago, the man asked to get some medication and then took the opportunity to shoot himself.

Along with six other former officers, Chacón Soto had been convicted of the crimes of kidnapping and killing the singer-songwriter.

Victor Jara died at the beginning of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, after the overthrow of then president Salvador Allende on 11 September 1973.

The artist was confined in the National Stadium, which had been transformed by the military into a torture and concentration camp.