Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday. He was convicted of ordering a military death squad to carry out two massacres that killed 25 people during his 1990-2000 rule. It is the first time for a democratically elected Latin American president was found guilty.

There were nearly 70,000 people that died in two decades of conflict in the Andean country.

This court declares that the four charges against him have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt, said Judge Cesar San Martin.

Once regarded as a hero, Fujimori, 70, could spend the rest of his life in prison. He got fame when he defeated the brutal Shining Path guerillas, tamed the economic chaos and freed dozens of hostages taken by the Tupac Amaru insurgency during a siege of the Japanese ambassador's house in Lima.

Fujimori was involved in a corruption scandal and lost power in 2000. After that he fled to exile in Japan and later was arrested in Chile and extradited to Peru .

With this ruling , the Peruvian court has shown the world even former heads of state cannot expect to get away with serious crimes, said Maria McFarland of Human Rights Watch .

The current president, Alan Garcia, has also been haunted by accusations that he violates rights during his first term in the 1980s. He would be put on trial following the Fujimori verdict.