Peru ex-president gets 25 year jail for organised killings

LIMA (AFP) - Peruvian former president Alberto Fujimori, 70, was Tuesday convicted by a court here of “crimes against humanity” for killings carried out by an army death squad during his 1990-2000 rule, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The ex-leader, who received the verdict by a special three-judge court without reaction, immediately said he would challenge the judgment in Peru’s supreme court.
“Your honour, I am taking my recourse to appeal,” he said in a dry tone — the only words he uttered throughout the verdict session.
Fujimori had remained impassive when chief judge Cesar San Martin told him charges he authorized the death squad to kill 25 people in two incidents, in 1991 and 1992, and the kidnapping of a businessman and a journalist in 1992 “have been proved beyond all reasonable doubt.” He remained seated, writing deliberately in a pad when San Martin added: “These crimes are crimes of state. Murder and serious injury under the law constitute crimes against humanity.” Throughout the 16-month trial — the longest and costliest legal case in Peru’s history — Fujimori maintained his innocence. He said he had been unremitting in his fight against leftwing guerrillas whose two-decade campaign of violence he all but stamped out by the end of his presidency.
But he denied employing “dirty war” tactics or knowing about the actions of the death squad, known as La Colina.
The case was viewed as a legal landmark, being the first time an elected Latin American head of state faced trial in his own country for human rights violations.
Fujimori’s daughter Keiko — a congresswoman considering running for president herself in 2011 — blasted the verdict.
“The sentence against my father is unjust. It’s a victory for human rights groups and terrorism,” she told AFP.
Rights groups, though, welcomed the trial result.