French Woman In Tihar Jail Will Be Extradited To Chile, Says Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has rejected a French woman's challenge against extradition to Chile, where she is wanted over the assassination of a key supporter of General Augusto Pinochet's military regime.

Chile is seeking the extradition of Marie-Emmanuelle Verhoeven, aged in her mid 50s, for her alleged role in a conspiracy to kill Senator Jaime Guzman Errazuriz on April 1, 1991.

She was arrested in February last year as she entered the country overland from Nepal, and she has been held in Delhi's high security Tihar Jail ever since.

Ms Verhoeven, who has told authorities she was visiting India on a Buddhist pilgrimage, had challenged a treaty between India and Chile allowing for extradition.

Lawyers argued that the treaty dating back to the 1800s was not constitutional because it was not ratified after partition of India in 1947.

But the Supreme Court in a written judgement on Thursday ruled in favour of the government which argued it was still valid, her lawyer Ramni Taneja said.

"This is a big blow and means the extradition proceedings can continue to go ahead. This has been very devastating for her," Ms Taneja told AFP.

Ms Verhoeven was arrested in India on the basis of an Interpol notice for her detention issued at Chile's request, but Interpol later cancelled the notice.

Ms Verhoeven, a native of Nantes in western Frances, was arrested in the German city of Hamburg in January 2014 and detained for four months.

But Germany rejected Chile's request to extradite her -- something her Indian lawyers had pointed to as they tried to thwart her extradition.

Ms Verhoeven lived in Chile from 1985 to 1995 and worked to promote human rights there, before returning to France.

She says she is the victim of a "political vendetta" against her.