RIGHTS-PERU:
Evidence Against
Fujimori ‘Overwhelming’
By Ángel Páez
LIMA, (IPS) -
There is "overwhelming"
evidence that former
Peruvian president
Alberto Fujimori
(1990-2000) was involved
in death squad killings
committed by army
intelligence agents,
chief prosecutor Pablo
Sánchez told IPS.
Fujimori was flown back
to Peru from Chile
Saturday to face
corruption and human
rights charges, after
the Chilean Supreme
Court ruled in favour of
extradition.
Friday’s Supreme Court
decision was based on
evidence gathered by
prosecutors in Peru up
to 2004, and handed over
to the Chilean courts in
the extradition request,
pointed out Sánchez, who
added that today there
is even more proof than
was presented at the
time.
"Since that date,
numerous relevant
testimonies have been
taken from former
members of the special
army unit that committed
the Barrios Altos and La
Cantuta massacres," said
the prosecutor.
In addition, "documents
and statements were
collected from military
chiefs who responded to
Fujimori’s orders," he
added. "In consequence,
the Peruvian justice
system has more abundant
and more decisive
elements to establish
the former president’s
guilt."
Sánchez put together the
case against Fujimori
for his ties to the
Colina Group, made up of
Army Intelligence
Service (SIE) agents
accused of the 1991
murders of 15 people in
the Lima neighbourhood
of Barrios Altos and the
1992 killings of nine
students and a professor
from La Cantuta
University.
Among the 57 people
facing charges in
connection with the
Barrios Altos and La
Cantuta killings is
Fujimori’s former
intelligence chief and
eminence gris, Vladimiro
Montesinos, and former
army chief General
Nicolás Hermoza, both of
whom are in prison on
other charges.
During the judicial
process, several members
of the Colina Group have
sought to reduce their
sentences in exchange
for providing
information to the
courts on the death
squad’s illegal
activities, said Sánchez.
"Once it was verified,
the information they
supplied was key to
finding out the truth
about the incidents,"
said the prosecutor.
On Nov. 3, 1991, the
military commando burst
into a fund-raising
party in Barrios Altos,
ordered the group to lie
on the floor, and opened
fire on them, killing
15, including an
eight-year-old boy. And
on Jul. 18, 1992, the
same group abducted
students and a professor
from La Cantuta
University, killed them
and buried their bodies
in secret graves.
In both incidents, the
victims were suspected
of belonging to the
Maoist Sendero Luminoso
(Shining Path)
guerrillas.
"Outside of the judicial
proceedings, other
former members of the
Colina Group took
advantage of the law
that offers legal
benefits to people who
committed crimes and who
offer information that
makes it possible to
identify those
responsible for the
crimes," said Sánchez.
These witnesses also
provided key information
on Fujimori’s
involvement, he added.
The former president
will face a separate
trial for the two
massacres, while the
prosecution against the
57 other defendants,
which began two years
ago, continues its
course.
"But the testimony,
documentary evidence and
other proof that emerges
in the trial of the 57
defendants can be
requested by the court
that will try Fujimori,"
said Sánchez.
Fujimori’s daughter
Keiko demanded that her
father be released on
bail instead of being
held in the special cell
prepared for him at a
police station on the
outskirts of Lima. "My
father deserves the
treatment accorded to a
former president," the
congresswoman argued.
But "the law is the same
for everyone, and the
former president will
receive the treatment
that is provided for by
law," said Sánchez.
The chief prosecutor
said one of the most
solid pieces of evidence
against Fujimori in the
human rights cases is
the statement of former
army chief Hermoza.
The general testified
that Montesinos told him
Fujimori was fully
informed of the Barrios
Altos and La Cantuta
killings, and that he
was closely involved in
military and
intelligence activities.
In fact the former
president even slept in
the offices of the SIE
and the National
Intelligence Service
(SIN), and governed from
there, in 1991 and 1992.
In addition, a former
member of the Colina
Group, Marcos Flores,
handed over to the
judicial authorities a
tape recording he made
of a Jun. 27, 1992
speech by General
Hermoza to 30 Colina
Group members.
In the speech, Hermoza
told the men that
officials at the highest
level of government were
fully aware of their
activities.
Sánchez said prosecutors
had found evidence of
Fujimori’s involvement
in other human rights
cases as well, and would
submit them to the
Chilean courts to
request an expansion of
the extradition
approval.
The Chilean Supreme
Court approved
Fujimori’s extradition
in seven of the 13 cases
for which Peruvian
prosecutors had
presented evidence,
including two human
rights cases and five
corruption cases. As a
result, he can only be
tried in Peru for the
seven cases in question.
"Peru’s anticorruption
authorities have
experience in the cases
of other defendants who
were extradited and were
found responsible for
additional crimes during
their trials," said
Sánchez, who explained
that requests to expand
their extradition
approval to other cases
were successful in those
instances.
"It has been
demonstrated by the
testimony and documents
gathered during the
judicial investigation
that Fujimori had an
influence on the
activities of the
members of an
organisation that was
under his control," he
said, referring to the
Colina Group.
Fujimori was arrested in
late 2005 when he
unexpectedly flew to
Chile from Japan, where
he lived after his
second term in office
collapsed in a huge
corruption scandal in
2000. (The former
president holds dual
Peruvian-Japanese
citizenship). |
