US Reps ask Chile to keep missing prof case open

[Judi Lynn]

US Reps ask Chile to keep missing prof case open
- The Associated Press
June 16, 2010 12:54pm EDT


BOSTON — Two U.S. congressmen are asking Chile's new president to continue the investigation into the 1985 disappearance of a Penn State University professor.

Pennsylvania Republican Glenn Thompson and Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank say mathematics professor Boris Weisfeiler disappeared in 1985 while on a hiking trip. Although for years the official explanation was that Weisfeiler drowned, U.S. State Department documents released in 2000 suggest his disappearance may be tied to Chile's security forces under Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Weisfeiler's sister, Olga Weisfeiler of Newton, Mass., pressed to have the case reopened, and in 2007 Chilean police appointed a human rights unit to handle it.

The congressmen say there is concern that with the election of Sebastian Pinera, investigators might be replaced.

http://www.centredaily.com/2010/06/16/2041903/us-reps-ask-chile-to-keep-missing.html