PERU: Mr Vladimiro Montesinos, the strongman behind former Peruvian president Mr Alberto Fujimori, went on trial in Lima yesterday where he faced charges of drug trafficking, money laundering, arms dealing, directing death squads and bribing judges, legislators and celebrities.
This week's court hearings will be the first public trial for Montesinos who was sentenced to nine years in jail for abuse of power in a closed-door hearing last July.
Mr Montesinos came to prominence after Mr Fujimori, a political outsider, won a shock presidential victory in 1990 at a time of unprecedented political unrest.
Mr Fujimori quickly came under the spell of the maverick lawyer and former CIA employee, who warned him of an alleged plot to kill him before he assumed office.
The grateful political novice rewarded Mr Montesinos with extraordinary powers that were used to build a corrupt empire as the Rasputin figure fixed elections, rigged court cases, imprisoned or killed opponents and bought media support with cash.
The Montesinos-Fujimori double act unravelled in September 2000 when a Peruvian television station broadcast a leaked videotape showing Mr Montesinos paying an opposition legislator $15,000 to leave his party and join Mr Fujimori's governing coalition.
In several tapes, Montesinos and associates spoke blatantly about manipulating the courts, the media and the political system to guarantee their control of the country. Mr Fujimori fled to Japan in November 2000 and sent his resignation by fax. Mr Montesinos fled the country in a yacht, spent time in Panama and underwent plastic surgery in Venezuela.
Two years ago a retired Peruvian army general and key witness in the corruption trial of Mr Montesinos was found dead in an apparent suicide. In the same month, army Colonel Francisco Nunez killed himself after being called to testify in the same case.
Most of the charges against Montesinos are for corruption and carry a maximum 10-year sentence. The prospect of conviction remains high as Montesinos documented his corruption in the infamous "Vladi videos", which he taped during his private dealings.
In a previous hearing last December, a judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to try Montesinos on one count of drug trafficking.
Since prison terms are served concurrently in Peru with time off for good behaviour, the former spy chief would be eligible for parole in a few years on the corruption charges.
Peruvians remain wary of Montesinos as democratic institutions are fragile and citizens believe he could return to power in the future.
International investigations have uncovered $207 million in overseas accounts linked to Montesinos, who remains defiant. He has gone on a hunger strike, refused to testify as a witness in other cases and told prison psychiatrists he is suffering from depression and is mentally unfit for trial.
Montesinos was captured while in hiding in Venezuela in June 2001 and is being held in the top security jail that he designed for captured rebels in the 1990s.