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Peru's ex-spy chief grins on way to jail
( 2001-06-26 11:32 ) (7 )

Smiling brazenly, Peru's ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, Latin America's most wanted man, was taken to a temporary jail on Monday after being flown home to face trial for corruption, embezzlement and murder.

Wearing a beige jacket and jeans, the balding Montesinos -- his wrists handcuffed together -- was led out of a police car and past a crush of reporters and photographers to a dungeon cell beneath the law courts for initial questioning.

He looked straight ahead, seemingly tired but unperturbed by his shock capture in Venezuela on Saturday. After@questioning, judicial sources said he was expected to be taken to a top security prison he designed at a naval base.

His hair looked grayer and he had stubble but, contrary to media reports that surfaced while he was on the run, Montesinos did not appear to have undergone plastic surgery.

"Although he appeared thin and to have lost weight ... (he) is in good health and aware of his legal situation," Sergio Salas, a senior judge who quizzed him, said in a statement.

The former spy chief, a cashiered army captain who was jailed briefly in the 1970s for selling secrets to the CIA, was flown home earlier in the day. US State Department spokesman Phil Reeker said Washington played a "vital" role in his arrest and the FBI provided key leads.

"It's my turn to lose," La Republica newspaper quoted Montesinos as telling Interior Minister Antonio Ketin Vidal when he was handed over. His words echoed those of Peru's then most wanted man, Shining Path rebel leader Abimael Guzman, when he was caught by Ketin Vidal in 1992.

Ketin Vidal flashed a "V for victory" sign with his fingers when the plane carrying Montesinos arrived in Lima.

HEAT NOW ON EX-PRESIDENT

Montesinos, accused of bankrolling courts, Congress, media and military, triggered a corruption scandal last September that plunged Peru into unprecedented political crisis, sparked coup fears and toppled then-President Alberto Fujimori.

The capture of Fujimori's chief henchman is sure to turn up the heat on the ex-president himself -- the highest profile figure implicated in scandals linked to Montesinos. Fujimori is in self-exile in Japan, protected by dual citizenship from escalating moves to have him, too, put on trial.

Peruvians believe Montesinos could dish the dirt on his decade-long relationship with Fujimori that would further fuel passions to bring the ex-president home.

"I wouldn't be surprised if some military, civilian, business and political figures linked to him tried to flee the country before he speaks," military analyst and retired Admiral Alfonso Panizo told Reuters.

With plenty of enemies -- some of whom may prefer to see him dead -- Montesinos' security is now a top priority.

Justice Minister Diego Garcia Sayan called Montesinos "an extremely dangerous criminal" whose life could be at risk.

Peruvians were elated by the surprise capture, after eight months on the run, of the once-untouchable man -- dubbed "Rasputin" for the power he wielded behind Fujimori's throne.

"This is perfect. They should shoot him for treason," said Waldo Loayza, a 42-year-old real estate administrator.

Six judges began interrogating Montesinos, who has 52 court cases in progress and faces 140 investigations implicating 553 people on charges including laundering drugs money, illicit enrichment, embezzlement, corruption of officials, arms and drugs trafficking, extortion and murder.

Investigators say the spymaster with a taste for James Bond movies and Frank Sinatra ran a corrupt "mafia" permeating Peruvian society and racked up an illicit fortune of at least $274 million in a network of foreign bank accounts. If convicted, he could face life imprisonment -- a sentence he was widely expected to receive.

DUBBED THE 'DOC'

Venezuela was tight-lipped on the details of the capture -- saying only officials had code-named Montesinos "coffee" -- which ended a tortuous eight-month manhunt punctuated by phantom sightings and even a report he was already dead.

Montesinos fled to the Caribbean by yacht last October after an asylum bid in Panama failed.

At one point, a Venezuelan minister dismissed as "magic realism" reports he was there and some congressmen accused President Hugo Chavez on Monday of using the arrest as a "smokes creen" to divert attention from the country's problems.

Dubbed the "Doc," Montesinos, who had a taste for diamond watches and escape tunnels hidden beneath his bathtub, sparked this Andean nation's biggest corruption scandal last September when a video was aired of him bribing a congressman.

The ensuing scandal -- illustrated by scores of other so-called "Vladivideos" -- revealed to horrified Peruvians how Montesinos allegedly exchanged wads of cash for favors, bugged and tortured opponents and manipulated elections to keep Fujimori in power from 1990-2000.

Peru had put a $5 million bounty on the spymaster but analysts said the reward was unlikely to be paid as the capture came from bilateral cooperation against organized crime.