By Xinhua,
Lima : Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori has been sentenced to 7.5 years of imprisonment for financial fraud and corruption.
The Special Penal Council of Peru’s Supreme Court Monday convicted Fujimori of illegally paying his intelligence chief $15 million from the state funds.
In his defence, the 70-year-old former Peruvian stongman said the money was paid to avoid a coup plotted by his high consultant Vladimiro Montesinos.
Fujimori said he would appeal against the verdict.
This is already the third trial on Fujimori since he returned to Peru in 2007. He was previously sentenced to 25-year imprisonment in a 15-month-long marathon trial for violation of human rights, including ordering the massacre of 25 people. He also received another six-year jail term for abuse of power.
Fujimori, who ruled the Latin American country from 1990 to 2000, still faces another trial for authorising bribery, telephone spying, and abusing public funds in the purchase of a news channel.
Montesinos, the National Intelligence Service chief, who fled Peru after Fujimori’s government collapsed amid corruption scandals, was later captured in Venezuela.
While announcing the verdict, Supreme Court judge Cesar San Martin said that the trial on Fujimori has no political implications and is based on Peru’s Constitution and laws.