Peru's Fujimori: Guilty

Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori has been found guilty of ordering killings and kidnappings during the war with "Shinning Path" Maoist guerrillas, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Fujimori is the first democratically-elected Latin American president to be found guilty of human rights crimes in his own country.

Fujimori was tried for ordering the 1991 killings at the Barrios Altos area of Lima, where 15 people died, and the killings at La Cantuta University in 1992, along with the kidnappings of journalist Gustavo Gorriti, a correspondent for Spanish daily El País, and businessman Samuel Dyer, who were abducted to the basement of the army's Intelligence Service.

Perú21.pe (h/t A Colombo-Americana) has a video of the judge reading the verdict while Fujimori takes notes. The judge stated that all charges were proved beyond reasonable doubt.

The Perú21 website's article states that Fujimori's sentence was read at 9 a.m. amid intense security. The prior night there were vigils and demonstrations by both Fujimori supporters and the families of the victims. Two thousand policemen were on duty in the area of the Diroes (Dirección de Operaciones Especiales, or Special Opreration Director) building.

The trial lasted 16 months. He had fled to Japan in 2000 while he was still president when his administration collapsed from corruption charges, and went to Chile in 2005, where he was arrested by Chilean police and extradited to Peru in 2007.

Fujimori was in power from 1990 to 2000. He dissolved congress in 1992 and reinstated it in 1995, winning re-election in 1995 and 2000. During his presidency

He cut the inflation rate from 7,650 percent in 1990 to 3.5 percent in 1999, according to Peru’s National Statistics Institute, by eliminating subsidies and price controls, floating the currency and selling off money-losing state companies in the early 1990s

In December 1996 fourteen MRTA terrorists (Emerretistas) seized the Japanese ambassador's residence and held 400 guests hostage. After releasing all but 72, they remained in a standoff until April 22, 1997, when military commandos raided the building and freed the hostages. Fujimori crushed the Shinning Path terrorists, which had killed an estimated 69,000 Peruvians. Fujimorismo remains a popular political movement.

Fujimori, whose daughter is a member of Peru's congress, announced he will appeal the sentence.