Salvador Allende's family members asked the judge to exhume his body and perform a new autopsy as part of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of the former Chilean president.
On September 11, 1973, during the coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, Allende was found in the presidential palace with a gunshot wound to the head.
It was claimed that he had committed suicide.
The army then performed an autopsy, and Allende's body was handed over to his wife in a closed casket.
Chilean authorities announced in January that they were launching an investigation to determine the circumstances of Allende's death, as well as hundreds of other people killed during Pinochet's rule.
Izabela Allende, the daughter of the former president, said that both the family and the judge believe that it is very important to do a new autopsy as part of the investigation, AP reported.
The Chilean Truth Commission announced in 1991 that 3.797 people were killed during Pinochet's rule. Many of those cases were investigated, and around 150 people were convicted.
However, 726 deaths have not been investigated, and Allende is among them.
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