Peru ex-president’s embezzlement sentence overturned

Lima: Peru’s supreme court has overturned an embezzlement sentence against former president Alberto Fujimori, although the decision will not alter the 25-year prison term he is serving for crimes against humanity.

The disgraced former leader was sentenced in January 2015 to eight years in prison for diverting some USD 40 million in state funds to help manipulate the media.

The sentence had only symbolic effect, however, with prisoners in Peru serving only the longest of their concurrent sentences. The court’s decision, which was released Tuesday by local media, concluded that Fujimori’s embezzlement trial had ended without proving his guilt and responsibility, nor his innocence.

The 78-year-old ex-president has denied the embezzlement charges, claiming there was no evidence that he participated in delivery of the money.

Fujimori has been in jail since 2007 on a 25-year sentence over the killing of 25 people by a government-backed death squad in Peru’s war against the Maoist Shining Path rebel group. He has been in and out of the hospital in recent months due to a series of health problems.

AFP