Peru Prosecutors Prepare Cases Against Fujimori

by Angel Paez

(IPS) LIMA -- Peruvian prosecutors say they are ready to bring 21 charges against former president Alberto Fujimori, many for human rights abuses, as they seek his extradition from Chile.

Although the charges bring a total of 225 years in prison, under Peruvian law, a prisoner found guilty in a number of cases only serves time for the most severe charges. In Fujimori's case, that would be homicide and grievous bodily harm, which bring a minimum sentence of 15 years that can be expanded to life in prison at the discretion of the judge.

Supreme Court Justice Jose Luis Lecaros, who is handling nearly all of the cases against Fujimori, told IPS that the Peruvian justice system was in a position to mount a strong case for his extradition from Chile, based on the evidence gathered over the five years since the former president fled to Japan and resigned by fax.

Lecaros said that all that was needed to convict and sentence Fujimori in cases involving corruption and human rights abuses was his presence in Peru.

Fujimori, who governed Peru as an authoritarian ruler from 1990 to 2000, flew to Chile Sunday in a private jet from Japan and was arrested at his hotel in the early hours of Monday morning.

Peruvian prosecutors had only managed to file two translated extradition requests in Tokyo, which were turned down. Now, said Lecaros, judicial authorities can bring requests in Chile for all 21 of the charges.

The most important case against Fujimori involves his alleged authorization of the Colina group, a death squad made up of active army intelligence agents.

Fujimori, through his security chief Vladimiro Montesinos who supervized the creation of the Colina group, is accused of approving the plan to kidnap, torture and murder suspected members of the leftist insurgent groups Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

Montesinos and members of the Colina group are now standing trial in an anticorruption court in Lima on charges of murdering 25 people. Three former agents who declared themselves guilty accused Fujimori and Montesinos of fully approving of their criminal activities in 1991 and 1992. In this case, Fujimori faces at least 15 years in prison.

Prosecutor Hector Gutierrez Ballon, who is preparing the extradition files, told IPS that there are three other serious human rights cases.

These include the 1992 murder of left-wing trade unionist Pedro Huilca Tecse and the forced disappearance and murder of an unspecified number of alleged "terrorists" in the basements of the SIE (the army intelligence body). Prosecutors are asking for 15 years in each of these two cases.

The third case, in which Fujimori could be sentenced to 10 years, relates to the kidnapping and torture of journalist Fabian Salazar in 2000 at the hands of retired police colonel Manuel Aivar, who sometimes carried out Montesinos' dirty work.

Salazar was tortured and almost killed after the intelligence services discovered he had uncovered evidence of government corruption.

"Since time is short, we are going to put emphasis on the cases involving human rights violations, which does not mean that the rest of the cases are not important too. The first extradition files should be in Chile within three weeks," said Gutierrez Ballon.

Lecaros confirmed that the courts had received the requests from the ad hoc Fujimori-Montesinos prosecutor's office to file the extradition application.

"It is my responsibility to organize three files against Fujimori to send to Chile: one accusing him of abandoning the post of president to take refuge in Japan and resign from there by fax; another for having broken into Montesinos' house after (the security chief) fled the country, when Fujimori stole video and cassette recordings and documents," said Lecaros.

"And the third relates to his authorization for Montesinos to escape to Panama, less than 48 hours after a video was released showing his security adviser paying a bribe to an opposition lawmaker," he added.

The prosecutors are seeking two, seven and 15 years of prison, respectively, for the three cases mentioned by Lecaros and say they are optimistic.

Gutierrez Ballon said Chile should receive the first files in the first week of December.

Other charges against Fujimori relate to embezzlement of state funds (for which prosecutors are asking for 20 years), weapons purchases from Israeli arms dealer Moshe Rothschild (15 years), the April 5, 1992, "self-coup" in which Fujimori dissolved parliament (15 years), the siphoning off of Japanese donations for poor children (15 years), and an order for the cancellation of the back taxes owed by the former president's campaign manager Daniel Borobio, who is now with Fujimori in Chile (15 years).

Prosecutors are also seeking 10 years each for the diversion of funds from the National Intelligence Service to finance presidential activities, for the hiring of Hector Ricardo Faisal to wage a smear campaign against opposition politicians and journalists, and for the purchase of Chinese tractors at inflated prices.

They are asking for eight years each for the authorization of telephone tapping and medicine purchases from China, for the payment of $15 million to Montesinos to convince him to flee to Panama in 2000 in a last-ditch attempt to save the collapsing government, and for the forgery of signatures orchestrated by Montesinos to register Fujimori as a candidate.

On two occasions, on Montesinos' advice, Fujimori sacked high-level officials who were causing trouble for the regime, and promoted others. Each case would bring him two years in prison.

Extradition could take at least two months. Meanwhile, Fujimori has been denied bail.

But Congress could still approve 17 other charges against him, which would push the total up to 38.

Former prosecutor Cesar Pantoja remarked to IPS that Congress was to blame for failing to process and vote on the additional charges, which would have strengthened the case for Fujimori's extradition.

"It is disgraceful that in all these years, the legislators were not able to reach agreement to move forward on these charges," said Pantoja.

The 17 additional charges include several human rights abuses, such as the forced sterilization of thousands of indigenous and poor women under government orders, and the deaths of six bank guards when the Banco de la Nacion was set on fire by Montesinos' intelligence agents to pin the blame on the opposition, which was protesting the electoral fraud that allowed Fujimori to win a third consecutive term in 2000.