JAPAN/ FILE: Japanese react news that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has been sentenced to 6 years in prison in Lima

Record ID: 465195

  • Title: JAPAN/ FILE: Japanese react news that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has been sentenced to 6 years in prison in Lima
  • Date: 12th December 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) KAZUIE TAMAMURA, 74-YEAR-OLD RETIREE, SAYING: "He worked hard to release the hostages in Peru, so Japan needs to support him a little bit more." (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) YUKIKO NAGAHARA, 70-YEAR-OLD HOUSEWIFE, SAYING: "As he was a president in Peru, I think it is proper that the court over there sentenced him." PEOPLE WALKING ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) KENICHI YANAGISAWA, 49-YEAR-OLD COMPANY EMPLOYEE, SAYING: "If the court was fact-based, I think the verdict is no problem for me though I feel sympathy with him."
  • Embargoed: 27th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAC4AG6N1SNHQSOUG615VD87PPF
  • Story Text: Japanese people react to news that former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has been sentenced to six years in prison for burglary.
    Many Japanese showed sympathy on Wednesday (December 12) for former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who was sentenced to six years in prison for sending an aide to steal documents from his spy chief.
    Fujimori was found guilty on Tuesday (December 11) in Lima of ordering the aide to break into a house where the chief of Peruvian intelligence had hidden 40 boxes of videos and tapes that documented corruption in Fujimori's government.
    The ruling could harm Fujimori's defense in a separate murder trial.
    Some Japanese people felt their government should show more support for the 69-year-old, who also has Japanese citizenship.

    "He worked hard to release the hostages in Peru, so Japan needs to support him a little bit more," Kazuie Tamamura, a retired 74-year-old said, referring to the four-month siege at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima in 1996-1997.
    But most Japanese interviewed by Reuters supported the verdict -- which was handed down by a Peruvian court -- and said Japan should not meddle in the affairs of another nation.

    "As he was a president in Peru, I think it is proper that the court over there sentenced him," said Yukiko Nagahara, a 70-year-old housewife who opposes any interference by the Japanese government.

    "If the court was fact-based, I think the verdict is no problem for me though I feel sympathy with him," added 49-year-old company employee Kenichi Yanagisawa.
    Fujimori plans to appeal the ruling, the first against him since he was extradited to Peru from Chile in September after seven years in exile to face four trials.
    In a human rights trial that began on Monday, Fujimori is accused of ordering two massacres that killed 25 people and two kidnappings when Peru was battling leftist insurgents during his 10-year rule that collapsed in 2000 in a corruption scandal.
    Fujimori faces up to 30 years in prison if found guilty of the murder and kidnapping charges, which he has angrily denied.
    He will face two more trials -- one for wiretapping political opponents and paying bribes to congressmen and broadcasters, and the other for paying $15 million in apparent hush money to the intelligence chief.
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