Peru’s ex-president proclaims innocence

LIMA, Peru (CNN) — Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori took the stand in his defense Wednesday in his 15-month human rights trial, unrepentantly saying that anyone who has not governed during a horrible guerrilla war cannot judge him.

Fujimori served as president from 1990 to 2000, at the height of Peru’s war with the radical Maoist Shining Path guerrillas and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. He is accused of authorizing slayings and kidnappings that were carried out by paramilitary death squads in 1991 and 1992 during what is often referred to as Peru’s “dirty war.”

Fujimori is already serving a six-year sentence on separate charges involving abuse of power.

“I had to govern from hell, not a palace, but from a hell that those who accuse me did not live like I had to live,” Fujimori said. “I only expect that those who sentence me consider for a moment that hell and not pretend to civilize from a distance.”