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Peruvian judge recommends murder trial for Fujimori
Lima, Peru, May 15: A Supreme Court judge has recommended that former president Alberto Fujimori stand trial for allegedly authorizing two massacres by a military death squad in the early 1990s, a court official said.
Lima, Peru, May 15: A Supreme Court judge has recommended that former president Alberto Fujimori stand trial for allegedly authorizing two massacres by a military death squad in the early 1990s, a court official said.
''After a year of investigation, judge Jose Luis Lecaros has found that Fujimori is responsible in the case of the massacres of Barrios Altos and La Cantuta. The crimes are murder, grave damage and forced disappearance,'' said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.
The charges stem from the 1991 murder by a death squad of 15 people, suspected of being leftist guerrillas, in a poor Lima neighborhood. A year later, nine students and a professor of La Cantuta University, also suspected guerrillas, were murdered by the same group.
Fujimori, who ruled Peru for 10 years, fled to Japan in November 2000 amid a corruption scandal that broke when a video surfaced showing his top aide, Vladimiro Montesinos, bribing a Congressman.
Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, is considered a Japanese citizen because his parents registered him with consular authorities as an infant. Japan and Peru do not have an extradition treaty and so far Japan has refused to send Fujimori back to Peru to face a variety of charges.
In March, Japan resisted pressure to arrest and deport Fujimori, contending that a notice issued by Interpol was insufficient grounds for an arrest.
Peru is currently preparing an extradition request, which officials have said should be handed to Japan in June or July.
Under Peruvian law, in the next stage of the case, a panel of Supreme Court judges will be charged with trying Fujimori.
''The judges will wait for the extradition procedure to run its course before opening the trial,'' the official said.
Bureau Report
The charges stem from the 1991 murder by a death squad of 15 people, suspected of being leftist guerrillas, in a poor Lima neighborhood. A year later, nine students and a professor of La Cantuta University, also suspected guerrillas, were murdered by the same group.
Fujimori, who ruled Peru for 10 years, fled to Japan in November 2000 amid a corruption scandal that broke when a video surfaced showing his top aide, Vladimiro Montesinos, bribing a Congressman.
Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, is considered a Japanese citizen because his parents registered him with consular authorities as an infant. Japan and Peru do not have an extradition treaty and so far Japan has refused to send Fujimori back to Peru to face a variety of charges.
In March, Japan resisted pressure to arrest and deport Fujimori, contending that a notice issued by Interpol was insufficient grounds for an arrest.
Peru is currently preparing an extradition request, which officials have said should be handed to Japan in June or July.
Under Peruvian law, in the next stage of the case, a panel of Supreme Court judges will be charged with trying Fujimori.
''The judges will wait for the extradition procedure to run its course before opening the trial,'' the official said.
Bureau Report