Woman accused of Chile dictatorship kidnappings asks for bail in Sydney court

A lawyer for a woman wanted in Chile on kidnapping charges dating back to the country's 1973-1990 military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet has denied in a Sydney court that she was involved in the disappearances of seven people and argued she was working in a mundane secretarial job at the time.

Adriana Rivas, who has lived in Australia since 1978, has been in custody since her arrest in February on a Chilean Supreme Court extradition request. She applied for release on bail on Friday in a Sydney court hearing that will continue on Monday.

Her lawyer, Frank Santisi, told the court she denies being a "co-perpetrator" at one of the Pinochet regimes most notorious “extermination centres”, the Simon Bolívar Centre and has never seen the alleged victims.

Chile requested Rivas' extradition in 2014 on charges that she kidnapped seven people in 1976 and 1977. The alleged victims have never been found.