JAPAN: Fujimori's wife pledges to fight for his freedom, Japanese lawmakers ask for a fair, unbiased trial for the former Peruvian president

Record ID: 462504

  • Title: JAPAN: Fujimori's wife pledges to fight for his freedom, Japanese lawmakers ask for a fair, unbiased trial for the former Peruvian president
  • Date: 13th November 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) SATOMI KATAOKA, WIFE OF ALBERTO FUJIMORI, SAYING: "He is a man of unbelievably strong principles. He's kind and modest. He's so simple that he cannot be the kind of man who would hatch cunning plots. I think that's why a lot of low-income people in Peru support him and sympathize with him - because he does not cheat." KATAOKA TALKING TO REPORTER (S
  • Embargoed: 28th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA2F7FIGVYG14EVLB0C0EBN7VSE
  • Story Text: The wife of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori pleaded her husband's innocence in Tokyo on Tuesday (November 13), pledging to continue fighting for his liberty.
    "He has made history and he will make more history. I'll continue supporting him and fighting with him," Satomi Kataoka, 42, who married Fujimori during his exile in Japan, told Reuters.
    "He is a man of unbelievably strong principles. He's kind and modest. He's so simple that he cannot be the kind of man who would hatch cunning plots. I think that's why a lot of low-income people in Peru support him and sympathize with him - because he does not cheat," Kataoka said.
    "Risking all my life, I'll fight for Alberto Fujimori,"
    Kataoka, who runs a hotel in central Tokyo, added.
    The former Peruvian president who has Japanese nationality is facing a sentence of up to 30 years on charges of corruption and human rights abuses.
    Meanwhile, a group of Japanese lawmakers is also throwing support behind Fujimori by appealing to Japan's Foreign Ministry and the Peruvian Embassy in Tokyo to make sure that the former president gets a fair trial in Peru.
    "Japan is fighting against terrorism, and our Parliament has adopted a resolution to thank President Fujimori for having resolutely fought against terrorism. Wishing for his well-being is in line with Japan's anti-terrorism stance," said Lower House member Taku Yamasaki, who heads a group of about 80 Parliament members demanding Fujimori receive a fair trial.
    In Japan, Fujimori is still largely remembered as the leader who successfully and decisively resolved a 1997 hostage crisis at the Japanese Embassy in Lima.
    "We have no intention to interfere with Peru's domestic politics, but if the country's political situation were to affect its law judicial system, we'd be sorry for him and it'd be regrettable," Yamasaki told Reuters.
    Fujimori, who governed from 1990 to 2000, is despised by some Peruvians but also enjoys broad support, credited with ending the Maoist Shining Path insurgency and stabilizing Peru's economy. Polls show a quarter of Peruvians want him to run for office again.
    Back in Peru, Fujimori now faces charges related to the notorious Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres which killed two dozen people in the early 1990s, when Peru was at war with the Shining Path.
    In July this year, Fujimori unsuccessfully ran for Japan's Upper House from Chile, where he was being detained before he was extradited to Peru.
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