LIMA , Peru ( CNN ) -- A three-judge panel of the Peruvian Supreme Court found former President Alberto Fujimori guilty Tuesday on charges involving human rights violations , including murder and kidnapping , and sentenced him to 25 years in prison . Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori speaks before the court in Lima earlier this month . During the three-hour hearing that ended a 15-month trial , the 70-year-old former leader , wearing a dark suit and tie and sitting ramrod straight , wrote frequently in a notebook and occasionally sipped from a glass of water . He showed no emotion as the verdict was announced . Fujimori , whose parents were Japanese immigrants , had faced a possible 30 years in prison . Jose Miguel Vivanco , director of Human Rights Watch , expressed satisfaction with the sentence , calling it `` perfectly proportional to the grave deeds that are imputed to him . '' `` This is an historic case , '' he told CNN en Español about the democratically elected former president 's conviction on rights violations in his own country . The case is `` without precedent in the world , not just in Latin America , '' he said . `` After years of evading justice , Fujimori is finally being held to account for some of his crimes , '' said Maria McFarland , senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch , who was in the courtroom for the announcement . `` With this ruling , and its exemplary performance during the trial , the Peruvian court has shown the world that even former heads of state can not expect to get away with serious crimes . '' Judge Cesar San Martin told the courtroom that Fujimori was responsible for the actions of the Colina unit , blamed for killing dozens of people as the government sought to halt the Shining Path rebel group . Fujimori said he would appeal . Outside the courtroom , Fujimori 's 33-year-old daughter , Keiko , herself running as a candidate in the 2011 presidential election , said the ruling was full of `` hate and vengeance . '' `` We 're going into the streets to demonstrate our open support for the best president this country has ever had , to the president who saved Peru from terrorism , '' she told reporters . But a group of relatives of the dead expressed satisfaction with the sentence . `` For the first time , they have respected the right of families to the truth and justice , '' said one woman . `` For the first time , they dignify the memory of the families ... I hope that this history of impunity not be allowed to recur . '' Also outside the courtroom , pro- and anti-Fujimori activists scuffled , but there were no reports of serious injuries . Javier Zuniga , a special adviser to the secretary general for Amnesty International , was in the courtroom as the verdict was read . `` We have been with the families celebrating , '' he said several hours later . He praised the prosecutors , saying , `` They showed that what happened in the organization could not have happened if there had not been high-level planning , a state machinery to kill , organized by the president himself . '' And he predicted that the case will be studied in law schools around the world . Fujimori , who is already serving a six-year sentence on separate charges involving abuse of power , led Peru from 1990 to 2000 , at the height of the country 's war with the radical Maoist Shining Path guerrillas and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement . He was convicted of authorizing killings and kidnappings by paramilitary death squads in 1991 and 1992 during what is often referred to as Peru 's `` dirty war . '' `` I had to govern from hell , not a palace , but from a hell that those who accuse me did not live like I had to live , '' Fujimori recently told the court . `` I only expect that those who sentence me consider for a moment that hell and not pretend to civilize from a distance . '' Fujimori 's pro-business policies were credited with helping steer the country away from financial disaster in the early 1990s , and he remains popular among many of his countrymen . Journalist Maria Elena Belaunde contributed to this story from Lima , Peru .
NEW : Former Japanese president sentenced to 1990s in prison . Charges against Maria McFarland stem from 25 years ' `` dirty war '' Fujimori already serving time on previous abuse of power conviction .