Four Peru 'death squad' members found guilty of murder

A Peruvian court has convicted a former general and three members of a military death squad of kidnapping and murder in a ruling that prosecutors say could set a precedent in the trial of former President Alberto Fujimori.

The four were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 to 35 years in connection with a 1992 massacre, but the three-judge panel absolved another member of the squad and three officers accused of providing support for it. The verdict made no reference to a ninth man charged.

The judges found the three former soldiers and an ex-general guilty of participating in the 1992 kidnapping and murder of nine students and a professor from La Cantuta University who were suspected of being rebel collaborators.

The killings became a landmark human rights case in Peru, where security forces fought a bloody war against Shining Path Rebels in the 1980s and early 1990s. The insurgency began to fade after Abimael Guzman and other key rebel commanders were captured in 1992.

In a separate courtroom, Fujimori is being tried for allegedly authorising the death squad to fight the guerrillas.

Jose Pelaez, the prosecutor in Fujimori’s trial, said the guilty verdicts would “establish a precedent” in the former president’s case.

“If the men who carried out the acts are found guilty, undoubtedly, the man at the top of the command chain, the man behind it all, Fujimori, also will be condemned for the same acts,” he said before the verdict was issued.

Fujimori has denied any knowledge of the death squad’s existence and says he never approved a dirty war against leftist rebels.