Peru's Supreme Court convicted and sentenced former president Alberto Fujimori to six years in prison today for wiretapping opponents and paying bribes to politicians and publishers during his rule.
Fujimori (71), was credited with defeating the leftist Shining Path rebels in a bloody civil war and taming economic chaos before his government collapsed in a corruption scandal in 2000 and he fled to Japan, where his parents were born.
Fujimori was found guilty of ordering his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos to tap the phones of politicians, journalists and businessmen.
He was also ordered to pay a fine of 24 million soles (€5.5 million) for paying bribes to a dozen congressmen to join his Peru 2000 party and to media outlets to ensure favorable coverage.
Fujimori, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April for human rights violations and to lesser sentences in two other cases since December, appealed the sentence during the televised trial.
The son of Japanese immigrants, Fujimori served as president from 1990 to 2000, when he fled to Japan as his presidency collapsed amid charges of corruption.
Japan recognised him as a citizen and denied Peru's extradition requests. He was extradited from Chile in 2007.