Peru Fujimori trial starts for stealing from aide
LIMA, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Scandal-plagued former President Alberto Fujimori will appear in court in Peru on Friday for the first time since being extradited from Chile, on charges of stealing, paying bribes and ordering murders during the 1990s.
In closed-door sessions, judges will try Fujimori for allegedly directing aides to break into the house of his former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, to remove 40 boxes of videos and tapes that documented corruption in his government.
"He was the mastermind behind an illegal seizure," Jose Clarke, one of the lawyers for the prosecution, told Reuters.
The trial for breaking-and-entering could last two months and Fujimori -- who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000 -- faces a seven-year prison sentence. But this is considered the least serious of dozens of charges he faces.
Fujimori critics are gearing up for Nov. 26, the start of a public -- and likely televised -- trial on charges he told police squads to carry out two massacres and two kidnappings at a time when Peru was battling the Maoist Shining Path insurgency.
Fujimori's supporters plan to rally on Friday in the hopes that their leader, who is credited with ending hyperinflation and defeating the Shining Path, will be absolved.
The human rights trial will be followed by two other trials, and all the court proceedings against Fujimori could drag on for years and include dozens of witnesses. In total, Fujimori, 69, could be sent to jail for 30 years.
One trial will be for wiretapping political opponents and paying bribes to broadcasters and Congressmen. The other will be for paying $15 million to Montesinos, ostensibly for service to his country but apparently to keep him quiet about corruption.
Montesinos was Fujimori's right-hand man for a decade and their hardball tactics helped defeat the Shining Path.
But now the two are legal adversaries -- each blaming the other for the regime's excesses.
Montesinos, in prison since 2001 on corruption charges, has said he was just carrying out his boss's orders.
As Fujimori's third term in office collapsed in scandals he traveled to Japan, his parents' birthplace, and resigned the presidency via fax.
He spent five years in Japan before flying to Chile, where he was picked up on an international warrant and lived for two years before being extradited last month.
In closed-door sessions, judges will try Fujimori for allegedly directing aides to break into the house of his former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, to remove 40 boxes of videos and tapes that documented corruption in his government.
"He was the mastermind behind an illegal seizure," Jose Clarke, one of the lawyers for the prosecution, told Reuters.
The trial for breaking-and-entering could last two months and Fujimori -- who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000 -- faces a seven-year prison sentence. But this is considered the least serious of dozens of charges he faces.
Fujimori critics are gearing up for Nov. 26, the start of a public -- and likely televised -- trial on charges he told police squads to carry out two massacres and two kidnappings at a time when Peru was battling the Maoist Shining Path insurgency.
Fujimori's supporters plan to rally on Friday in the hopes that their leader, who is credited with ending hyperinflation and defeating the Shining Path, will be absolved.
The human rights trial will be followed by two other trials, and all the court proceedings against Fujimori could drag on for years and include dozens of witnesses. In total, Fujimori, 69, could be sent to jail for 30 years.
One trial will be for wiretapping political opponents and paying bribes to broadcasters and Congressmen. The other will be for paying $15 million to Montesinos, ostensibly for service to his country but apparently to keep him quiet about corruption.
Montesinos was Fujimori's right-hand man for a decade and their hardball tactics helped defeat the Shining Path.
But now the two are legal adversaries -- each blaming the other for the regime's excesses.
Montesinos, in prison since 2001 on corruption charges, has said he was just carrying out his boss's orders.
As Fujimori's third term in office collapsed in scandals he traveled to Japan, his parents' birthplace, and resigned the presidency via fax.
He spent five years in Japan before flying to Chile, where he was picked up on an international warrant and lived for two years before being extradited last month.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Cash injection
Palin power abuse scandal
