Peru ex-leader pleads guilty in corruption trial

LIMA, Peru — Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has pleaded guilty to authorizing wiretaps and bribes to journalists, politicians and businessmen.

The 71-year-old ex-president already faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison because he has been sentenced to 25 years in earlier trials.

But his daughter is a leading candidate for president and says she’ll pardon him if elected.

After prosecutors presented the new charges on Monday, Fujimori said three words to the presiding judge: “Sir, I agree.”

Prosecutors say Fujimori ordered his former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos to secretly wiretap 28 politicians, journalists and businessmen and to bribe 13 congressmen, a TV station and a newspaper editorial board.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Former President Alberto Fujimori, who already faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison, went on trial again Monday, charged with authorizing wiretaps and bribes of politicians, journalists and businessmen.

Prosecutors charge Fujimori ordered his former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos to use state funds to secretly wiretap 28 politicians, journalists and businessmen, bribe 13 congressmen to join Fujimori’s party and buy off a TV station and a newspaper editorial board for political propaganda.

Montesinos has testified that he made the payoffs on behalf of Fujimori. The former president argued in one of his earlier trials that he knew nothing of the money — that Montesinos was using the bribes to win support for a planned coup against him.

The 71-year-old former president wore a crisp blue suit and golden tie, closing his eyes and appearing to sleep as chief prosecutor Jose Pelaez named many of the 99 witnesses he plans to call — including Montesinos and Fujimori’s ex-wife.

Democratically elected in 1990, Fujimori ruled Peru with an increasingly iron fist until his corruption-riddled government collapsed in 2000 when a videotape surfaced showing Montesinos bribing a congressmen.

Fujimori has battled a series of health problems over the past two years s a Supreme Court panel has convicted Fujimori of crimes against humanity for authorizing military death squads, of abuse of power for an illegal search and of embezzlement for paying his spy chief $15 million in state funds.

He is appealing the convictions, though he acknowledged in court that he made the irregular payoff to Montesinos.

Peruvian prison sentences do not accumulate, so the 25-year murder and kidnapping sentence Fujimori received in the death-squad trial is the maximum term he can serve.

Prosecutors say they will seek an eight-year sentence on the three corruption counts and that Fujimori pay $1.7 million to the state and $1 million to be shared between the 28 people whose phone lines were illegally tapped.

Montesinos used intimidation and bribery to bend generals, judges, politicians, TV and newspaper men to Fujimori’s will. He is now serving a 20-year term for bribing lawmakers and businessmen and selling weapons to Colombian rebels.

Fujimori’s lingering popularity for neutralizing the brutal, Maoist Shining Path guerrillas has helped make his daughter Keiko as the strongest candidate in some polls for the 2011 presidential election. She has said she would pardon her father if elected.

Fujimori’s lawyer has repeatedly called the three-judge Supreme Court panel’s rulings politically motivated, but last week Peru’s Supreme Court rejected a suit he filed in attempt to remove the judges.

Fujimori fled to Japan in 2000 as his government collapsed. He attempted to return in 2005 only to be arrested in Chile and extradited to Peru in 2007.