Peru court backs sentence of ex-president

THE Peruvian Supreme Court yesterday unanimously upheld a 25-year prison sentence on the country’s former president Alberto Fujimori, who has been convicted of massive human rights abuses.

A Supreme Court review of Fujimori’s convictions was requested in November by his defence lawyer, who asked the high court to revoke his client’s sentence.

“None of the 10 pieces of evidence that went to determine his guilt as mastermind of premeditated murder have to do with the issue of him giving the order for the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta killings in 1991 and 1992,” attorney Cesar Nakazaki told the court.

The defence lawyer also asked for an annulment of Fujimori’s conviction in the kidnapping of a journalist and a businessman in 1992, claiming there was not enough evidence to prove that the former president had ordered the abductions.

Fujimori, aged 71, has been found guilty in four trials since he was extradited from Chile in September 2007.

He was found guilty of abuse of power and sentenced to six years in prison in December 2007.

In July, he pleaded guilty to charges of illegally paying a $15 million bonus to his security chief and right-hand man, Vladimiro Montesinos, and was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. The sentence is under appeal.

And on September 30 he was given another six-year sentence and fined $9m after he admitted charges of wiretapping and bribing journalists, politicians and business leaders.

In one of the first reactions to the Supreme Court’s ruling, member of Congress Carlos Raffo said he was “disappointed” by it.

“The court has convicted a president who has freed us from terrorism,” Raffo said.

“And it has ratified this odious 25-year sentence without any proof of guilt. It was a political settling of scores against Fujimori.”

His political downfall began in 2000 when a video of Montesinos was broadcast on television, showing the spy chief buying off an opposition lawmaker.