A special tribunal in Peruvian capital of Lima on Tuesday (7th April) convicted former President Alberto Fujimori of murder and kidnapping and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. The tribunal said he authorized a government death squad during the Shining Path insurgency and convicted him of crimes against humanity including 25 murders by that military hit squad.

 

According to the presiding judge Cesar San Martin, Fujimori authorized the creation of the Colina unit that killed at least 50 people within 15 months as the state crushed the fanatical Shining Path rebels. Fujimori is the first democratically elected president of Peru and remains remarkably popular for rescuing Peru from the brink of economic and political collapse in the early 1990s. Now after the court verdict he is the first elected president to be tried for rights violations in his own country.

 

The 70-year-old former leader apparently anticipated a guilty verdict. Earlier, he had proclaimed his innocence in the beginning of the 15-month's long trial. Although none of the trial's 80 witnesses directly accused Fujimori of ordering killings and kidnappings, the court said he bore responsibility by allowing the creation of an illegal killing apparatus.