Crime & Justice

Fujimori’s ‘man behind the curtain’ accepts charges for 1992 massacre in Peru

Lima, 29 ene (EFE).- Vladimiro Montesinos, former director of Peru’s National Intelligence Service and the “man behind the curtain” during President Alberto Fujimori’s government (1990-2000), on Monday accepted murder and forced disappearance charges in the Pativilca case, the Peruvian Supreme Court announced.

The Pativilca massacre was carried out by the Peruvian paramilitary Colina Group on Jan. 29, 1992, in central Peru, in which six people allegedly linked to the insurgent group Sendero Luminoso were tortured and murdered.

At Monday’s hearing, Montesinos asked for the “anticipated closure” of the case, meaning that he accepted the charges.

The court decided to “schedule the reading of his sentence for Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 11:00 a.m.,” according to the court’s X report.

The prosecution requested a sentence of 25 years in prison, but Montesinos’ defense asked that his sentence be considered served because he has been in prison for over 22 years.

Montesinos has been in prison since 2001.

Since then, he has been tried on more than 60 charges, ranging from drug and arms trafficking to murder and human rights violations.

As of September 2023, he had received more than 30 criminal convictions, the longest being a 25-year prison sentence for the massacre of 15 people in Barrios Altos.

Former president Alberto Fujimori, also a defendant in the Pativilca case, has said he will not agree to an “anticipated closure,” so his trial will continue along with those of former army chief Nicolás Hermoza Ríos and former general Luis Pérez Documet, as well as members of the Colina group.

Fujimori, 85, left the prison in December, where he was serving 25 years for crimes against humanity, in accordance with a ruling of the Constitutional Court, which reinstated the pardon granted to him in 2017 by the then president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. EFE

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