Pubdate: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 Source: Associated Press (Wire) Copyright: 2003 Associated Press EX-PERU ATTORNEY GENL SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR CORRUPTION LIMA -- A court has sentenced Peru's former attorney general - for years accused of protecting once-feared intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos - to 10 years in prison on corruption charges. In addition to the prison term, delivered late Thursday, the criminal court fined former Attorney General Nelida Colan the equivalent of $570,000. The court found Colan guilty of crimes related to receiving $10,000 a month from Montesinos, failing to show how she paid for a $750,000 house and shelving an investigation into a bribery case involving the ex-spy boss. The bribery scandal - sparked by a secret videotape showing Montesinos apparently paying an opposition congressman $15,000 to join the government's ruling bloc -triggered the downfall of former President Alberto Fujimori's decade-long regime in 2000. Colan, once considered a close Montesinos ally, is accused of having quashed or shelved several criminal investigations aimed at the former intelligence chief. In 1996, Colan ignored testimony from a high-profile cocaine trafficker that he had paid Montesinos $50,000 a month in exchange for use of a jungle air strip to ferry out shipments of raw cocaine. Colan, who was arrested in July 2001, said that she is innocent of the charges and that she will appeal the decision to Peru's Supreme Court. Fujimori fled to Japan in 2000. He is wanted on corruption charges by Peruvian authorities but is protected from extradition by Japanese citizenship. Montesinos is in a maximum security prison facing dozens of charges including influence peddling, drug trafficking and human rights abuses. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth