LIMA (Reuters):

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to six years in prison on Tuesday for sending an aide to steal documents from his spy chief, a ruling that could harm his defence in a separate murder trial.

Supreme Court judge Pedro Urbina found Fujimori guilty of ordering the aide to break into a house where intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos had hidden 40 boxes of videos and tapes that documented corruption in Fujimori's government.

Fujimori plans to appeal the ruling, the first against him since he was extradited to Peru from Chile in September after seven years in exile to face four trials.