Chilean singer Jara is exhumed

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Officials in Chile have exhumed the body of the popular singer, Victor Jara, who was killed shortly after the military coup in 1973.

A judge ordered the move as part of efforts to shed more light onto the circumstances of Jara's death.

Victor Jara had been taken to a stadium and shot; last week a former army conscript, Jose Adolfo Paredes Marquez, was charged over the killing.

Mr Paredes, who is now 54, denies responsibility for the death.

Victor Jara was among thousands of people rounded up in the early days of General Augusto Pinochet's right-wing military coup, which ousted the elected leftist President, Salvador Allende.

New evidence

He was taken to the Chile stadium in the capital, Santiago, where he was tortured and killed.

Judicial authorities reopened the investigation into his death last year, after new evidence was presented by his family.

The 38-year-old singer was one of the founding fathers of Chile's New Song movement, and a supporter of President Allende.

More than 3,000 people were killed or disappeared during the period of military rule in Chile, which lasted from 1973 to 1990.