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GUEST: Bruce St John, author, independent scholar, and Peru Specialist

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday in the first conviction in a series of trials. He was found guilty of an abuse of authority when he ordered an illegal search of an apartment rented by the wife of his former chief spy. Proceedings will reconvene today in another trial that began Monday for kidnapping and murder charges against Fujimori. In the nationally televised opening trial proceedings, Fujimori responded to allegations of human rights abuses by shouting to the three-judge Supreme Court panel “I reject the charges entirely! I am innocent!” The former president stands accused of authorizing kidnappings and murders carried out by the right wing La Colina death squad during the early years of his decade long administration. Fujimori came to the presidency of Peru in 1990 as a political outsider at a time when the country was in a state of civil war between the military and various left-wing guerrilla groups. He defended his record as president by declaring in his outburst that if there were crimes committed, they weren’t by his orders. Human rights activists anxiously await the outcome of the trial that was made possible by Fujimori’s extradition from Chile earlier this year.