Peru’s Fujimori pleads guilty to corruption

Fujimori, 71 and ailing, appeared to sleep during chief prosecutor Jose Pelaez’s accusation but stirred at the close of the session to say three words to the presiding judge: “Sir, I agree.’’

Pelaez requested an eight-year sentence for the illegal wiretaps, bribes, and embezzlement, which would be served concurrently with a 25-year sentence imposed in his previous trial for murder and kidnapping.

He could be freed far earlier, however, if his daughter, Keiko, is elected president in 2011. She has vowed to pardon her father and she leads some recent campaign polls, partly because Fujimori remains popular for crushing a leftist rebellion in his reign.

The guilty plea avoids an arduous trial that might be hard on his health as well as damaging his daughter’s campaign by reminding voters of the darkest days of his government.

Pelaez charged Fujimori with ordering 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 to support his 2000 reelection campaign.

Montesinos - whom prosecutors planned to call as the principal witness - has testified in his own trials that he made the payoffs on behalf of Fujimori. Fujimori 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 three-judge panel will sentence Fujimori tomorrow. In addition, prosecutors want him to pay $1.7 million to the state and $1 million to be shared among the 28 people whose phone lines were illegally tapped.