Peru’s Ex-President Convicted of Rights Abuses

by Simon Romero, The New York Times, April 8, 2009

CARACAS, Venezuela — A three-judge panel of Peru’s Supreme Court on Tuesday convicted former President Alberto K. Fujumoriof human rights abuses and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. The abuses included the killing of 25 people by a military death squad created by Mr. Fujimori in the early 1990s as the country was locked in a bloody conflict with Maoist rebels.

The case has stirred old tensions in Peru, where Mr. Fujimori, 70, remains a popular figure after subduing two rebel groups during his years in power, from 1990 to 2000. Almost 70,000 people were killed in the war with the Maoist guerrillas, known as the Shining Path, and the smaller Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

“We feel completely satisfied,” said Gisela Ortiz, 36, whose brother, a student, was one of the death squad’s victims in 1992. “The criminal apparatus that was used to commit these crimes has been exposed.”

Specialists in international human rights law closely followed the case because of its implications for other former or current heads of state who might face charges of war crimes and other abuses. Mr. Fujimori was convicted of murder, aggravated kidnapping and battery, as well as crimes against humanity.

The verdict, which he said he would appeal, follows a long saga. Mr. Fujimori fled to Japan in 2000 and arrived in Chile in 2005 with a plan to return to power in Peru, only to be extradited by Chile in 2007 to stand trial.

“The charges have been proved beyond all reasonable doubt,” César San Martín, the chief judge of the panel, said Tuesday in the courtroom at a base for special forces on the outskirts of Lima.

In a previous case, Mr. Fujimori had already been sentenced to six years in prison for ordering an illegal search, while his government was collapsing in 2000, of the residence of the wife of Vladimiro Montesinos, his former intelligence chief. With that sentence to run concurrently with the 25-year sentence handed down on Tuesday, less the time Mr. Fujimori has served since his extradition two years ago, he could remain in prison until 2032.

The verdict came after a trial that lasted more than a year and was broadcast on television in Peru. Among other things, the judges found Mr. Fujimori guilty of the murder of 15 people, including an 8-year-old boy, at a barbecue in the Barrios Altos area of Lima, and of 10 people who were abducted in 1992; their burned bodies were found a year later outside Lima.

The killings were carried out by a shadowy squad of military intelligence officers, known as the Colina Group. In testimony last week, Mr. Fujimori said he had not authorized the murders or kidnappings.

“I had to govern from hell,” he said. “That is why I am being judged.”

The panel of judges also found him guilty of overseeing the kidnappings of Gustavo Gorriti, a prominent journalist, and Samuel Dyer, a businessman, in 1992. Both men were later freed.

Mr. Fujimori still faces two additional trials on corruption charges. The Supreme Court could take four to six months to rule on his appeal of the conviction on Tuesday, Peruvian legal experts said.

As the verdict was read, Mr. Fujimori, wearing a dark suit and a black necktie, sat alone and silent in the courtroom, writing on a notepad.

Outside the building, hundreds of his supporters faced off in shouting matches with people who had turned out to demonstrate against Mr. Fujimori, who is known in Peru as Chino, although his ancestry is Japanese. Riot police officers tried to separate the two groups, but some clashes took place.

Some of Mr. Fujimori’s followers brandished signs reading “Fuerza 2011,” or “Force 2011,” a reference to Peru’s presidential election in two years; his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, 34, a congresswoman, is a candidate for president. Ms. Fujimori has said that if she is elected, she will pardon her father.

“My indignation is immense to listen to this judgment full of hate and vengeance,” Ms. Fujimori said of the verdict, in televised comments.

Others disagreed with that assessment, pointing to detailed testimony during the trial, the report of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and documents declassified by the United States government.

A State Department cable on Aug. 23, 1990, for example, described information from a Peruvian intelligence source, a former naval officer, who said that the plan to carry out extra-judicial assassinations of suspected terrorists had “the tacit approval of President Fujimori.” Ernesto de la Jara, director of the Legal Defense Institute, a human rights organization in Lima, described the judges’ verdict as “an impeccable sentence.”

“It is so well made that it would be difficult to dismantle it,” he said.

On Lima’s streets, reactions ranged from redemption to dismay. “Injustice has been committed,” said Jorge García, 42, a motorcycle mechanic who admires Mr. Fujimori. “Now we must take to the streets to make ourselves heard, peacefully.”

Others had a more simple analysis. “If he is guilty,” said Tomasa Sánchez, 35, a cellphone saleswoman, “then he should pay.”

Andrea Zarate and Lucy Conger contributed reporting from Lima, Peru.