LIMA—Prosecutors presented evidence on Wednesday to link former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori to a military death squad, trying to build their case a day after he was convicted on a burglary charge in a separate trial.
Fujimori denied in front of three Supreme Court judges he knew about the existence of the group of killers, called Grupo Colina, which murdered suspected leftists during his 1990-2000 rule.
"I can say clearly and without doubt: no, never, ever," Fujimori said.
When Fujimori took office, the Maoist insurgency known as the Shining Path had taken control of vast swaths of the Andean country. During 10 years in power, Fujimori defeated the guerrillas and tamed a chaotic economy, but critics said he went too far and violated human rights.
Fujimori, 69, is being tried on charges he ordered the squad to carry out the La Cantuta massacre, in which 10 people were snatched from a university and buried in a shallow grave in 1992 for allegedly collaborating with left-wing guerrillas.
The trial for human rights crimes, which started on Monday, also charges Fujimori with two kidnappings and the Barrios Altos murders in 1991, when 15 people were gunned down at a family barbecue, among them an eight-year-old boy. Fujimori faces up to 30 years in prison.
During Wednesday's proceedings, prosecutor Jose Antonio Pelaez exhibited a letter Fujimori wrote to 10 military officers in 1991 that congratulated them for investigating the Maoist insurgency known as the Shining Path. Four of those 10 officers have admitted they were part of the death squad.
The former president's supporters said the letter did not prove anything because it was written before the two massacres for which Fujimori is being tried. Opponents said it connected him to the death squad.
"Fujimori is going to systematically deny the group existed, but there is proof and the prosecution has evidence," said Javier Torres, a human rights activist observing the trial.
Fujimori also denied he was close friends with Vladimiro Montesinos, a former military officer who ran the government's intelligence apparatus and was widely regarded as Fujimori's most important confidant.
Chile extradited Fujimori to Peru in September after seven years in exile to face four trials. On Tuesday, Peru's Supreme Court sentenced him to six years in prison for sending an aide to steal incriminating documents from Montesinos' house after the two had a falling out.
Feeds