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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to