Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday for sending an aide to steal documents from his spy chief, a ruling that could harm his defence in a separate murder trial.
Supreme Court judge Pedro Urbina found Fujimori guilty of ordering the aide to break into a house where intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos had hidden 40 boxes of videos and tapes that documented corruption in Fujimori's government.
Alberto Fujimori
Fujimori plans to appeal the ruling, the first against him since he was extradited to Peru from Chile in September after seven years in exile to face four trials.
"If this was a political persecution before, now it's become a judicial persecution," said Fujimori's daughter Keiko, a member of Congress. She called the sentence excessive and accused the court of bias.
In a human rights trial that began on Monday, Fujimori is accused of ordering two massacres that killed 25 people and two kidnappings when Peru was battling leftist insurgents during his 10-year rule that collapsed in 2000 in a corruption scandal.
Fujimori (69), faces up to 30 years in prison if found guilty on the murder and kidnapping charges, which he angrily denied on Monday.
He will face two more trials: one for wiretapping political opponents and paying bribes to congressmen and broadcasters, and the other for paying $15 million in apparent hush money to Mr Montesinos.
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