SANTIAGO, Chile - Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was placed under house arrest Wednesday after the country's top court ruled that murder and kidnapping charges against him can move forward.

The arrest order was delivered to Pinochet's country estate a short distance from the Pacific coast. Pinochet was placed under house arrest once before in Chile- for six weeks in 2001 in another human rights case, which was later dismissed.

His arrest came after Chile's Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a lower court decision rejecting a defense motion arguing Pinochet was unfit to be charged because he suffered dementia.

While on house arrest, Pinochet will remain under the guard of a military police battalion.

Charges against him relate to the death and disappearances of 10 leftists in the 1970s during a campaign by South American dictators to get rid of dissidents.

The court's unprecedented decision brought the former dictator one step closer to his first trial in a major human rights case, but the defense will still have other opportunities to halt the case.

More than 3,000 people died and 27,000 were tortured during Pinochet's 17-year rule, which ended in 1990. He has never been tried for human rights violations, but various military officers who served him have been convicted of rights crimes.