LIMA: Peru’s former president Alberto Fujimori went on trial Monday, accused of using a death squad during his 1990-2000 reign to exterminate suspected rebel sympathizers. The 69-year-old ex-leader looked composed in his dark suit and took notes as proceedings began in a police complex in eastern Lima under intense media attention.

He is accused of human rights violations related to the 1991 and 1992 mass killings of 25 people, and of the kidnapping and detention of a journalist and businessman critical of his regime.

If convicted at the end of what promises to be a lengthy trial, he could go to jail for up to 30 years and be ordered to pay 33 million dollars in compensation to the victims’ families.

Prosecutors are also pursuing him for several cases of corruption.

After living in self-exile for five years in his ancestral homeland of Japan -- from where he sent his resignation by fax -- he traveled to Chile in 2005, where he was arrested. After a lengthy legal battle, he was extradited to Peru in September this year.

He is still a popular figure in his country for having introduced neoliberal policies that put the economy on its feet, and for taking a firm stance against the radical leftwing guerrilla movements Shining Path and Tupac Amaru which were virtually vanquished at the end of his term in office — AFP