Former Chilean military agents convicted of serious human rights violations under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet could be freed by a controversial new ruling that seeks to halt the spread of the coronavirus among the country’s prison population.

An urgent bill proposed by the ministry of justice would release some 1,300 low-risk prisoners from overcrowded prisons to serve out their sentences securely under house arrest.

The measure would apply to people convicted of lesser crimes who are elderly, pregnant, have children younger than two years of age, or are terminally ill – as long as they have already served at least half of their sentences.

But 14 government senators have argued that should also apply to inmates at the infamous Punta Peuco prison – a comfortable facility housing about 70 inmates convicted of dictatorship-era human rights violations.

“Faced by a global pandemic that is costing thousands of lives, our government is making an unethical and opportunistic attempt to free convicted human rights criminals,” said Lorena Pizarro, the spokeswoman for the Association for the Families of Disappeared Detainees.

“Although our organisation is in favour of releasing prisoners who meet these conditions serving sentences for lesser crimes, this is an unthinkable concession in this political climate.”

The proposed amendment has divided the ruling Chile Vamos coalition and prompted a fierce opposition backlash.

According to a 2018 report by Chile’s national human rights institute, the private cells in Punta Peuco are spacious and well-lit, each with a private bathroom, and inmates had access to satellite television, computers, tennis courts and shaded barbecue areas.

This situation is very different from that of other prison facilities in the country, which are overcrowded and often lack basic provisions.

Against a backdrop of unresolved social tensions after six months of protests, Sebastián Piñera, the president, provoked further outrage last week for saying that human rights offenders also deserved to die with dignity.

A 1991 report by Chile’s National Truth and Reconciliation Commission detailed 3,428 cases of forced disappearance, killing, torture and kidnapping under the 17-year dictatorship. The whereabouts of many of the “disappeared” remain unknown, and many perpetrators have refused to reveal how bodies were disposed of.

Some of the dictatorship’s most infamous exponents have passed through Punta Peuco, including Manuel Contreras, the leader of the feared Dina secret police from 1973 until 1977, who died in 2015.

A constitutional tribunal is due to hold a public hearing on Monday before ruling on the matter. The final decision on prisoners’ release would rest with the judiciary.