Alberto Fujimori, the former president of Peru, was sentenced Tuesday night to six years in prison 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 Mr Fujimori, 69, guilty of ordering the aide to break into a house where intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos had hidden videos and tapes that documented corruption in Mr Fujimori’s government.