SANTIAGO, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chilean court has started an investigation into the several million US dollars the country's former dictator Augusto Pinochet deposited in Riggs Bank of the United States, La Tercera daily reported Tuesday.

    Judge Sergio Munoz confirmed that the court had taken control of the 6 million dollars Pinochet's lawyers gathered into the sameaccount in Bank of Chile to facilitate the investigation.

    According to the lawyers of the 88-year-old army general, who ruled the country from 1973 to 1990 after seizing power in a bloody coup, all of the money owned by Pinochet was put into the account.

    The investigation was launched after a US Senate committee found that Riggs Bank, based in Washington, had up to 8 million dollars in secret accounts in his name between 1994 and 2002.

    "My father's asset was the result of his savings, it was the result of donations and, undoubtedly, it was also the result of profits from these investments," said Marco Antonio Pinochet, the youngest son of Pinochet.

    "If you check stocks of some of Chilean companies in these pastfew months," you could find that "there are companies that have gone up more than 30 percent," he said, arguing that his father's money came from savvy investment.

    In addition to gathering all of Pinochet's money in a single bank account for investigation, the retired general's lawyers alsoprovided a report detailing on every investment he made that couldincrease his asset.

    Meanwhile, stripped of immunity from prosecution he had rigged for himself before he left the presidency, Pinochet will have to face court questioning Thursday about the disappearance of opponents during his 17-year dictatorship.

    According to official figures, some 3,000 people were killed ordisappeared during his regime.

    The lawsuit is one of hundreds pending in the court filed by victims' families accusing him of having kidnapped, tortured and killed leftist dissidents.  Enditem