Fujimori 'filled with pride,' he tells court

April 02, 2009|Associated Press

LIMA - Former president Alberto Fujimori closed out his 15-month murder and kidnapping trial yesterday by calmly telling a court there was no incriminating evidence against him and that he does not regret imposing security policies that crushed a fanatical Maoist insurgency.

"I say it to the whole country, I am filled with pride, Mr. President, for having returned Peru to peace," Fujimori said, addressing the presiding judge.

Fujimori, 70, faces 30 years in prison on murder and kidnapping charges for allegedly authorizing military death squad killings of 25 people in two early 1990s massacres and for the kidnappings of a prominent businessman and a journalist when he sent troops to close Congress and the courts in 1992.

Dressed in a crisp, dark suit and a blue tie and standing at the center of an overflowing court room, Fujimori looked calm, a break from his outburst at the start of the trial - in which he waved his arms in outrage and shouted his innocence.

In the following months, he looked visibly depressed and ailing from a series of health issues.

"No one has been able to present a single piece of evidence against me, due to the simple fact that they don't exist. As I said at the beginning, I'm innocent," Fujimori told a packed court.

Two-thirds of Peruvians polled recently approved of his rule, but 71 percent also think he'll be found guilty.