JURIST - Paper Chase: Peru ex-president Fujimori sentenced to 6 years for illegal wiretapping and bribery

[JURIST] The Criminal Chamber of the Peruvian Supreme Court on Wednesday sentenced [materials, in Spanish] former president Alberto Fujimori [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] to six years in prison for multiple counts of illegal wiretapping and bribery. Fujimori is to serve his sentence concurrently with the sentences from his three other convictions. In the fourth and final trial pending against him, former Fujimori was also ordered to pay 24,060,216 nuevos soles (USD $8.3 million) to the state and 107,042 nuevos soles (USD $37,000) to each of the 28 people who were wiretapped. Fujimori pleaded guilty [JURIST report] on Monday to the charges of ordering former intelligence director Vladimiro Montesino [BBC profile] to use government funds to secretly wiretap politicians, journalists, and other prominent Peruvians and to bribe [Andina report] congressmen and journalists to join his party and to support his 2000 re-election campaign. Fujimori accepted the charges to shorten his trial so no hearings would be held and to receive a reduced sentence of six years rather than the eight years requested by the prosecution. Both parties have said that they intend to appeal [IPS report, in Spanish]. Fujimori argues that his conviction is void despite his guilty plea, while the prosecution objects to the final sentence reduction.

In July, Fujimori was convicted and sentenced [JURIST report] to seven-and-a-half years in prison for paying former Peruvian intelligence director Montesino $15 million to resign in 2000 in the midst of the scandal that ultimately resulted in Fujimori's arrest [JURIST report] in 2005. Fujimori was convicted [JURIST report] in April of committing human rights abuses for approving multiple killings during his 1990-2000 presidency. The conviction and subsequent sentencing, which put Fujimori in prison for 25 years, was met with widespread approval [JURIST report] from the current government and human rights organization, despite Fujimori's planned appeal. In 2007, Fujimori was convicted [JURIST report] of ordering a warrantless search in 2000 on the apartment of Montesino's wife. Prosecutors alleged that the search was intended to uncover and confiscate documents that might incriminate Fujimori. Similar to the present charges, Fujimori admitted to the facts, but denied any wrongdoing.