|
Fujimori trial resumes with testimony from massacre witness
2008-01-04
A newspaper reporter testified Friday that Alberto Fujimori ordered his abduction in 1992, as the trial of Peru's former president on murder and kidnap charges resumed following a holiday break. Peruvian reporter Gustavo Gorriti, at the time was the correspondent for the Madrid daily El Pais, told the court that his arrest had been instigated by Fujimori's right-hand man and intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos. He said Peru's top general at the time Nicolas Hermoza told him as much in prison, where Gorriti interviewed him while investigating his own arrest after Fujimori's downfall in 2000. Fujimori, 69, is on trial for allegedly being behind an army hit squad that killed 25 people in two massacres, in 1991 and 1992. Gorriti said he was abducted by hooded soldiers on April 5, 1992, when Fujimori shut down the opposition-led Congress, suspended the constitution and assumed dictatorial powers in what became known as the "self-coup." He said Hermoza made clear that Fujimori was behind his arrest. "I asked ... why he had signed the arrest warrant and he answered: 'What else could I do? I was the only one willing to do it. President Fujimori didn't do it and Montesinos, who insisted on your arrest, also didn't want to sign. So I was the only one left and I signed.'" Gorriti was held incommunicado for two days in the basement of army intelligence headquarters at the defense ministry, a complex of buildings known as the "Pentagonito" (Little Pentagon). He was released following pressure from the Spanish government and from international media groups. Gorriti said Hermoza's statement and other details of his investigation led him to conclude, "with absolutely no fear of error," that Fujimori was aware of his kidnapping and arrest, which he said was "illegal and kept in secret." Before Gorriti took the stand, survivors of the November 1991 Barrios Altos massacre -- in which an army hit squad known as the Colina Group shot dead 15 people at a neighborhood block party -- testified. One of them, Condor Cahuana, recalled how hooded men arrived at the popular festival and opened fire on the crowd. In the last court hearing on December 26 Tomas Livias, one of the Barrios Altos victims, described how he survived despite being shot 27 times. Now a quadriplegic, Livias said he had received death threats so that he would "not speak ill of the ex-president." Fujimori has said that he had only set general policy lines and never drew up anti-terrorist tactics or ordered a "dirty war" against subversives. The prosecution seeks to show that Fujimori ordered or covered up the actions of the Colina Group, and ordered the kidnappings of Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer who was detained for helping then ex-president -- now president -- Alan Garcia flee when soldiers came to arrest him. Both cases are being handled together. If found guilty the ex-president faces up to 30 years in prison.
| 
