(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-06 16:16

LIMA - Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori will receive a verdict in an abuse-of-authority case next Tuesday, said a Judicial Branch news release published Wednesday.

Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori, laughs while speaking by phone at his home in the neighborhood of Chicureo in Santiago, Monday, July 9, 2007. [Xinhua]

After being extradited to Peru from Chile in September, Fujimori, 69, faces seven charges that could keep the former president in jail for the rest of his life. Among those charges, abuse-of-authority is the first and least serious one.

According to the news release, the judge in the case will announce his verdict on Tuesday along with the sentence.

The prosecutor is seeking a sentence of seven years and a 330,000-dollar fine on the charge Fujimori abused his authority by ordering a search of the apartment of his former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos's wife without a warrant in 2000.

At that time, his regime was reeling from a corruption scandal, and a few days later, he fled Peru to Japan, his ancestral homeland.

Fujimori has acknowledged ordering an aide to monitor the search without a warrant, but has justified it as part of a nationwide manhunt for Montesinos, who was accused of money laundering by Switzerland.

Fujimori has also denied prosecution claims he was looking for evidence that might implicate him in Montesinos' illegal activities.

Fujimori's lawyer Cesar Nakazaki has asked for a reduced sentence of four years, arguing that Fujimori was merely the "instigator" of the crime.

More serious charges Fujimori faces include murder, kidnapping, bribery and misuse of state funds. Fujimori has said earlier he is innocent of those charges.