Peru’s Fujimori convicted of corruption in fifth trial

[Judi Lynn]

Peru’s Fujimori convicted of corruption in fifth trial
By Associated Press January 8 at 4:27 PM


LIMA, Peru — A three-judge panel in Peru has convicted jailed former President Alberto Fujimori of funneling more than $40 million in public funds to tabloid newspapers that smeared his opponents during his 2000 re-election campaign.

Thursday’s conviction was the fifth for the 76-year-old Fujimori.

The judges sentenced him to eight years in prison and fined him $1 million. The sentence will run concurrently with the stiffest sentence he has received to date: 25 years for murder in the military death-squad killings of 25 people.

Fujimori fled Peru in 2000 amid a bribery scandal and was extradited in 2007 from Chile, where he was arrested trying to return to his homeland to attempt a political comeback.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/perus-fujimori-convicted-of-corruption-in-fifth-trial/2015/01/08/2436cdfa-977d-11e4-8385-866293322c2f_story.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Fujimori tricks:

Wednesday, May 9, 2001; Page A01

U.S. Allies In Drug War In Disgrace

Arrests of Peruvian Officials Expose Corruption, Deceit

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service


LIMA, Peru -- Inside a dilapidated downtown prison, a gaggle of former president Alberto Fujimori's top generals sulked around a green cement jail yard on a hot afternoon. The recently arrested generals whiled away their recreation time halfheartedly, playing soccer and reminiscing about the days when Fujimori's finest could count on at least one steadfast friend: Uncle Sam.

Gen. Juan Miguel del Aguila, head of Peru's National Anti-Terrorism Bureau until last year and, later, security chief of the National Police, recalled frequent meetings with U.S. intelligence agents right up to the moment when Fujimori abandoned the presidency and fled to Japan in November.

"The U.S. was our partner in every respect, giving us intelligence, training, equipment and working closely with us in the field," said del Aguila, who is charged with conspiracy in the state-sponsored bombing last year of a bank in central Lima, an act meant to look like the handiwork of Fujimori opponents to portray them as
radicals. "The United States was our best ally."

Less chatty, Gen. Nicolas Hermoza Rios, an honors graduate from the U.S. Army's School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga., shooed away a foreign journalist.

The former head of Fujimori's joint chiefs during most of the 1990s -- a decade when Peru vied with Colombia as the top recipient of U.S. military aid in South America -- Hermoza had just pleaded guilty to taking $14 million in illicit gains from arms deals. He was still fighting more potent charges of taking protection money from the same drug lords the United States was paying Peru to fight.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/perus-fujimori-convicted-of-corruption-in-fifth-trial/2015/01/08/2436cdfa-977d-11e4-8385-866293322c2f_story.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. Peru's ex-leader Fujimori gets 8 more years in jail

Peru's ex-leader Fujimori gets 8 more years in jail
Xinhua, January 9, 2015

Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori, who is now serving a 25-year jail term, was sentenced to eight more years in prison Thursday on embezzlement charges.

Fujimori, 76, was convicted by Lima's Supreme Court (CSL) of embezzling 122 million new soles (about US$41 million) in public funds to buy favorable press coverage during his 2000 reelection campaign. He was also ordered to pay US$1 million for ordering funds diverted from the Armed Forces and National Intelligence Service to newspapers to discredit his political opponents.

~ snip ~

Fujimori, who was in office from 1990 to 2000, is currently serving a 25-year jail term over the killing of 25 people by a government-backed death squad against guerilla forces during his tenure.

According to Peruvian law, sentences can not be served simultaneously.

http://www.china.org.cn/world/2015-01/09/content_34517331.htm