Peru: Fujimori's Lawyer Points Finger at Garcia

Former President Alberto Fujimori's lawyer on Monday asked how a court could convict his client of murder and kidnapping if Peru's current president was never charged for human rights abuses allegedly committed during his first term in office two decades ago.

I have wondered this myself actually, although I take a rather different slant from this one:

"The same logic that served for not charging President (Alan) Garcia should serve to acquit Fujimori if this trial is legal and not political," defense lawyer Cesar Nakazaki told the court

I see the issue from the other direction, and wonder why Garcia shouldn't also see the dock sooner rather than later.

Garcia denies any responsibility for rights abuses committed during his first term. They include the slaughter of 69 peasants — including 21 children under age 5 — by an army patrol in Accomarca village in 1985 and the massacre of 29 peasants in Cayara village in 1988 and the subsequent murder of 9 witnesses to the killings in a military cover-up.

Garcia already took the stand as a witness in the trial of Peruvian navy officers for the 1986 killings of some 250 inmates, many after they surrendered, in a military siege at two Lima prisons.

Fujimori's defense points to Peru's president (AP)