Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison on Monday after he admitted illegally paying his spy chief US$15 million in government funds.
Fujimori sat expressionless in front of the three-judge panel as the verdict and sentence were read. He told the court he would seek to nullify the ruling.
The conviction is the third in less than two years for the ex-leader. He was sentenced in April to 25 years in prison for authorizing military death squads during his 10-year rule. Earlier, he was convicted of abuse of power and sentenced to six years for an illegal search.
Peruvian prison sentences do not accumulate, so 25 years is the maximum term the 70-year-old Fujimori can serve.
Last week, Fujimori acknowledged making the irregular payment to intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos, but he said he should not be held criminally responsible because he later repaid it with money found in the headquarters of Montesinos’ feared agency.
By acknowledging the payoff, Fujimori avoided a drawn-out trial that could damage his daughter’s candidacy for the 2011 presidential election. Keiko Fujimori has said she will pardon her father if she wins.
During a spirited defense on Friday that critics called a campaign speech for his daughter, Fujimori said he was obligated to make the payment to avoid a military coup plotted by Montesinos.
“The true judgment for me is that of the people, who have long absolved me in their hearts,” Fujimori said.
The former president still enjoys some popularity for neutralizing Shining Path guerrillas that nearly toppled the government, but a series of recent trials have tied him to corruption and human rights abuses.
During his defense, Fujimori said his previous convictions and the embezzlement case were politically motivated, and he did not expect to find justice in court.
Presiding Judge Cesar San Martin opened the hearing on Monday by denying any political intent.
Fujimori faces yet another trial on allegations that he authorized illegal phone taps and congressional bribes and that he used state funds to purchase a television station to air political propaganda.
As his government was collapsing in 2000 after a videotape surfaced showing Montesinos bribing a congressman, Fujimori signed an executive order transferring US$15 million to the Defense Ministry to defend against a supposed incursion of Colombian rebels in Peru.
The court ruled the money was handed over to Montesinos, who moved it to foreign bank accounts and fled for Panama.
Montesinos is now serving a 20-year term for bribing lawmakers and businessmen and selling weapons to Colombian rebels.
Prosecutors dispute Fujimori’s claim that he found US$15 million in Montesinos’ intelligence agency 41 days after the illegal payoff and have called for a separate investigation.
The court also ruled that Fujimori must join three former Cabinet ministers in contributing to a US$1 million reparations payment to the government.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS