国际英语新闻：Fujimori sentenced to 7.5-year imprisonment for embezzlement

LIMA, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The Special Penal Council of Peru's Supreme Court of Justice on Monday sentenced former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori to seven and a half years in prison for embezzlement.

    Fujimori was convicted of illegally paying Vladimiro Montesinos, virtual chief of his National Intelligence Service, 15 million U.S. dollars in state funds.

In his defense, the 70-year-old Fujimori said the money was paid to avoid a coup d'etat plotted by Montesinos, his intelligence chief.

    While announcing the verdict, Supreme Court judge Cesar San Martin said that the trial on Fujimori has no political implications and is based on Peru's Constitution and laws.

File photo shows that Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori attends his trial at the Special Police Headquarters in Lima September 08, 2008.

    Fujimori said that he would appeal the sentence since its grounds were "invalid."

    He, however, had acknowledged last week during the legal process the accusation of the illegal payment to Montesinos, but refused to accept any legal responsibility.

    "I recognize only these deeds, I do not accept legal responsibility, punishment or the civil reparations," he said on that occasion.

    It was believed that with this money Montesinos, who was later captured in Venezuela, fled Peru after Fujimori's government collapsed amid corruption scandals in November 2000.

    Investigation results confirmed that Fujimori handed the money to his intelligence chief in September 2000, two months before his government came to a notorious end.

    Prosecutor Avelino Guillen said Fujimori was the one who "directly dealt" with the payment to Montesions as retribution for his work between 1990 and 2000.

    This is already the third trial on Fujimori since he returned to Peru in 2007.

    He was sentenced in April to 25-year imprisonment in a 15-month-long marathon trial for violation of human rights. He was found responsible for 25 civilians' lives who were killed in 1991 and guilty for ordering the kidnapping of a businessman and a journalist in 1992.

    Later he got another six-year jail term for abuse of power.

    Fujimori, who ruled the country from 1990 to 2000, still faces another trial for authorizing bribery, telephone spying, and abusing public funds in the purchase of a news channel.

    Fujimori's government collapsed due to the corruption scandals recorded on videotapes. Fujimori resigned via fax to his charge from a hotel in Tokyo, Japan on November 2000.

    According to Peru's penal code, the prison sentence does not accumulate.