Thousands of miles away from Russia, where the judicial farce otherwise known as the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky is playing out, there is another case which gives one much greater optimism for the advance of international legal precedent:  the conviction and sentencing (to 25 years in prison) of the former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. 

Regular readers of this blog are aware that I have followed this case carefully, and will plan to post some additional comments as time permits.  This judicial decision, which has placed a formerly popular authoritarian president before a fair court to stand trial for his crimes and abuses of power while in office, should send a strong message to other world leaders and government officials who have believed themselves to be above the law – you too can one day be held accountable.  Latin America, once again, shows that it can teach us a lot about Russia.

For now, I quote below from an excellent write up by Alvaro Vargas Llosa: