MONTESINOS RECEIVES 9-YEAR SENTENCE

LIMA - Nearly one year to the day after his arrest following a
continent-wide manhunt, former Peruvian strongman Vladimiro Montesinos was
convicted of abuse of authority during his 10 years as security advisor to
former President Alberto Fujimori.

A Peruvian court Monday sentenced Montesinos to nine years and four months
in prison for illegally heading the National Intelligence Service under
Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 to November 2000, when he resigned.
Montesinos was also fined approximately $2.85 million.

During the sentencing, the court said the 57-year-old Montesinos, who faces
even more serious charges in dozens of cases, admitted that he had run the
National Intelligence Service, even though he had never been officially
named its leader.

In that role, he was perhaps the most feared individual in the country --
operating largely from the shadows and rarely appearing in public -- as
well as the most powerful after the president himself. On Monday, however,
he stood motionless and silent during the hour-long sentencing, staring at
Judge Saul Pena Farfan while a court reporter read the charges against him.

The sentence was read in a theater-turned-courtroom at the Callao Navy
Base, where Montesinos has been held since his extradition to Peru on June
25, 2001, following his arrest in Venezuela one day earlier.

This was the first sentence handed down against Montesinos in more than 60
cases pending against him. It was also the fourth attempt by the judge to
have the sentence read. On earlier dates, Montesinos switched lawyers and
requested that the judge be removed from the case.

Montesinos is accused of masterminding a web of corruption that penetrated
deep into all sectors of Peru's ruling class. Fujimori resigned as the
scandal began to unfold, living in self-exile in Japan since November 2000.
Montesinos did not make a statement after the sentencing, but his lawyer,
Estela Valdivia Cano, said he would appeal the sentence.

STRATEGY

Valdivia added that she had no problems with the sentence, saying
sarcastically that nine years seems a fair price to pay "for having
defeated terrorism, achieving peace with Ecuador and unifying the armed
forces and national police."

Luis Jochamowitz, who recently published a book on Montesinos, says
Valdivia's comments are part of the Montesinos defense strategy.

"Montesinos needs to change his image. Everyone sees him as a gangster. By
placing his actions within the political context of the 1990s, he is trying
to politicize his defense and gain some public sympathy," says Jochamowitz.

Building up support will not be easy. During his 10 years with Fujimori,
Montesinos was seen in public only a handful of times. From the onset of
the administration, he was often portrayed in the press as sinister, a kind
of Peruvian Rasputin.

Montesinos' distant past is no help. He was court-martialed by the military
in 1976, accused of forging the president's signature to make a trip to the
United States. He spent several years in a military prison, during which
time he began studying law. He emerged in the mid-1980s as a defense lawyer
for Peruvian drug traffickers.

His ties to drug traffickers resurfaced throughout his tenure in the
Fujimori administration. In 1997, jailed drug kingpin Demetrio Chavez
claimed he paid Montesinos $50,000 for every drug flight out of Peru.

ONLY THE BEGINNING

Drugs, arms trafficking and human rights violations are a big part of the
on-going investigations, and prosecutors were quick to point out that
Monday's sentencing is only the beginning of the process.

"There is still a long way to go with the case. People should not think
that this sentence is the final verdict. This case involved only one of the
minor charges against him," says Special Prosecutor Luis Vargas Valdivia.

Under Peruvian law, sentences are not cumulative, so Monday's ruling will
negate any additional sentences of less than nine years. The same holds
true if Montesinos receives a sentence above nine years in future cases.

NOTORIOUS VIDEO

Montesinos' fall from the height of Peruvian politics began Sept. 14, 2000,
when a video he had secretly taped in his office at the National
Intelligence Services was made public. On that video, Montesinos is seen
giving a congressman $14,000 to switch political parties and join
Fujimori's bloc. Two days later, Fujimori announced that he was firing
Montesinos and that he was calling a new election.

Montesinos left for political asylum in Panama a week later, returned to
Peru briefly in October and then disappeared until his arrest in Venezuela
months later.

In the meantime, thousands of videos filmed by Montesinos have been made
public, and he claims to have thousands more hidden away for future use. In
one of the few photos of Montesinos taken before his arrest, he is seen
reading a book while living in exile. A videotape is poking out from the book.