Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori acknowledged on Monday that he paid his spy chief US$15 million in state money to quit as his government collapsed amid a corruption scandal.
Fujimori’s defense lawyer, Cesar Nakazaki, said the 70-year-old ex-president should not be held criminally responsible for the irregular payment to spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos because he later repaid the money.
“I only accept the facts, I do not accept the criminal responsibility, the punishment or the civil reparations,” Fujimori told the court at the start of his embezzlement trial.
Fujimori was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in April for overseeing death squad activity that claimed 25 lives during his 1990-2000 rule as his government fought Maoist Shining Path guerrillas.
He was previously convicted of abuse of power and sentenced to six years for an illegal search.
He faces two more trials for allegedly authorizing illegal phone taps, bribes to congressmen and secretly buying a TV station for political propaganda with state money.
Chief Prosecutor Alvaro Guillen asked for eight years on the embezzlement charge and that Fujimori pay the state US$670,000 in reparations. Guillen said Fujimori paid Montesinos to leave Peru shortly after a video surfaced that showed the spy chief bribing a congressman.
In Peru, prison sentences do not accumulate, so 25 years is the maximum term Fujimori can serve in prison.
Montesinos, the shadowy power behind Fujimori’s 10-year regime, is serving a 20-year term for bribing lawmakers and businessmen and running guns to Colombian rebels.
At the start of Monday’s trial, Fujimori again sat pokerfaced and composed before the three-judge panel. But as the hearing dragged on the graying Fujimori closed his eyes for extended intervals and appeared to sleep.
Fujimori looked markedly older on Monday than he did at the start of his first, 15-month human rights trial, when he declared his innocence to the court in a full-throated roar.
When first asked to respond to the charges on Monday, Fujimori requested a 10-minute medical reprieve. He appeared depressed and ailing from a series of health issues during the long sessions of his last trial.
The third of five trials Fujimori faces, the embezzlement hearings are the first to tackle the web of corruption that brought down his government in 2000. Fujimori says he repaid the US$15 million to state coffers before fleeing Peru for Japan in November 2000, two months after the video tape surfaced. Fujimori was arrested in 2005 when he attempted to return to Peru via Chile.
Contacted by telephone by The Associated Press, Nakazaki declined to say if the money Fujimori used to repay the state was his own.
Prosecutors questioned how Fujimori, a former university rector, could have legally come up with the money.
Analysts say Fujimori admitted to the irregular payment to avoid a long, drawn-out trial that could damage the presidential chances of his daughter, Keiko. The trial is expected to wrap up by Friday.
Keiko leads several opinion polls on the strength of her father’s lingering popularity for neutralizing the bloody, Shining Path insurgency.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
RSS