Fujimori on Trial :: Fujimori procesado

Defense team representing Alberto Fujimori, Nicolás Hermoza Ríos and Julio Salazar Monroe. From left: Gladys Vallejos Santa María, César Nakazaki, Johan Pinedo Rojas. Picture from the Peruvian judiciary.

The Court within the Peruvian Superior Court that emitted the sentence on the Cantuta case has presided over the trial that includes the Barrios Altos, El Santa and Pedro Yauri cases for the past three years (in 2005, it was decided to process the three cases together in just one trial). This trial has required time, preparation, case study and economic resources from the Peruvian judiciary.

However, this Court was challenged on April 17, 2008 by lawyer Johan Pinedo Rojas, member of the defense team that represents Alberto Fujimori in his human rights trial.

If this challenge is accepted, the trial of the Barrios Altos case (which Fujimori is also being tried for) will be suspended while a new court is elected to preside over the trial, which would reinitiate next year. Consequently, this would allow the Colina group members implicated in the trial (who are currently under arrest) to request a writ of habeas corpus, arguing excess time in prison without being sentenced.

(Pedro Yauri.)

Therefore, due to the request by Fujimori’s defense, members of the Colina military group could be freed without being sentenced.

The argument made by the defense team in the case of Julio Salazar Monroe, who was head of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), is that on dictating the Sentence for the Cantuta Case, the Court has advanced the opinion of recognizing the existence of the Colina military detachment. However, the sentence that condemned the Colina members for the murder of nine students and a professor at La Cantuta University does not make any reference to sentencing the members for Barrios Altos, El Santa or Pedro Yauri.

Some of the military officials being tried for the cases of Barrios Altos, El Santa and Pedro Yauri include:

Nicolás Hermoza Ríos

Julio Salazar Monroe

Juan Rivero Lazo

Máximo Humberto Cáceda Pedemeote

Fernando Rodríguez Zabalbeascoa

Santiago Martin Rivas

Carlos Pichilingüe Guevara

Nelson Carbajal García (supuesto dueño de “la ferretería”, lugar de almacenamiento de las armas del Destacamento Colina)

Ángel Pino Díaz

Jesús Sosa Saavedra

Pedro Supo Sánchez

Shirley Rojas Castro

Estela Cárdenas