A Peruvian court has found Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori guilty for the massacres in Barrios Altos and La Cantuta that left 25 people dead. The court also accuses him of ordering the illegal detention of a journalist and a businessman in 1992.

The trial was held at a special-forces police base on the outskirts of Lima. The verdict on the four charges leveled against Fujimori was adopted unanimously by the three judges of the case. Fujimori’s trial lasted for 15 months and was suspended several times because of the former leader’s failing health. At the end of the mega-trial, Fujimori was found guilty of violation of human rights.

Fujimori has been indicted for his responsibility in the massacres of Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, which left 25 people dead in 1991. The court has ascertained that the covert military group La Colina, perpetrator of the massacres, committed the murders. These death squad killings were part of a ‘dirty war’ against suspected Maoist Shining Path guerrillas in the early 1990s. Fujimori is said to have masterminded the massacres. He was also indicted for the 1992 illegal detentions of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer.

Chief Judge César San Martín said that the charges against Fujimori are proven beyond reasonable doubt. The former Peruvian president has been sentenced to 25 years in jail on top of  a six-year sentence that he has been serving since 2007 for separate charges of abuse of power.

Via BBC