New conviction for Vladimiro Montesinos, former adviser of Alberto Fujimori

Vladimiro Montesinos, the once all-powerful advisor to former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), was sentenced this Thursday to 17 years in prison for the kidnapping of journalist Gustavo Gorriti after the coup that that ruler gave on April 5, 1992.

The Judicial Branch reported that the sentence was handed down by the Fourth Superior National Transitory Liquidation Criminal Chamber, which also convicted 12 other ex-commanders of the Armed Forces for having coordinated the kidnapping of journalists and politicians during the coup.

Among those convicted are former generals José Valdivia, Julio Salazar Monroe and Alfredo Arnáiz, who were considered primary accomplices and received 12 years in prison, in the first case, and 10 years in prison, the others.

The court ordered that those sentenced must pay, together, a civil compensation of 550,000 soles (137,500 dollars) in favor of the aggrieved, among which were, in addition to Gorriti, Abel Salinas, Cesar Barrera, Luis Negreiros, Jorge Del Castillo, Mirtha Cunza, Jorge Mantilla, Luis Kitasono, Fernando Reyes and Dionisio Luque.

During the process, the prosecutor Gino Quiroz accused Montesinos and the ex-military officers of the crime of aggravated kidnapping and requested penalties from 10 years for the accomplices, up to 20 years for the “indirect perpetrators” (with control of the fact).

For his part, Gorriti’s lawyer, Juan Quispe, maintained that it had been proven that it was not an illegal detention, but that they were kidnapped and taken to military installations during the coup that Fujimori gave, which closed the Congress and the Judiciary to assume full powers.

The kidnapping of Gorriti, as well as the businessman Samuel Dyer, was one of the cases for which former President Fujimori was tried and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2009, who was also considered the “mediate author” of the Barrios Altos massacres and La Cantuta, committed by the covert military group Colina in 1991 and 1992, respectively.

Montesinos, for his part, has been in prison since 2001 and is serving sentences for various crimes, such as corruption of officials, conspiracy, forced disappearance, qualified homicide, money laundering, arms trafficking and usurpation of functions.

Among his longest sentences are 25 years in prison for Colina’s crimes, as well as another 20 years in prison for the illegal sale, in 1999, of rifles purchased in Jordan from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). (I)