Missionary 'tortured' by Chilean police

\ CATHOLIC missionary has been brutally attacked and tortured by Chilean police after attending the funeral of an exPresident of the country, according to Chilean Church officials. The alleged police brutalities have been strongly condemned by Cardinal Raul Silva Henriquez, Archbishop of Santiago and the Superior and Society of Mill Hill, the London-based missionaries. According to a statement issued by the Cardinal, the priest. Fr Alfonso Flor Larcher, was assisting peacefully at the funeral rites of the ex-President of the Chilean Republic, Eduardo Frei, when he was forcibly detailed by police. Fr Alfonso was allegedly forced aboard a police vehicle where he was repeatedly beaten about the head and body with police batons. As soon as Fr Alfonso confessed to being a priest, "electric current was applied to one of his legs" and he was made to suffer "a series of insults about himself and about the Church authorities," the statement claims. He was later released from police custody, after the special intervention of Bishop Jorge Houton, Vicar General of the Diocese.
The Archbishop has sent a statement denouncing the police activities to the Government Department of Public Opinion in Santiago, at the same time "protesting to the authorities who permit these abuses." To date, no official explanation of the police action has been given.