Peruvian soldiers to face civilian court on murder charges

The president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, has said that twenty soldiers and four civilians charged with murdering two Japanese students on an Amazon River trip will face a civilian, not a military court.

He said the soldiers had committed a monstruous crime which had shocked the people of Peru and Japan.

The authorities said the remains of the two men, dug up near an army camp in the Amazon jungle, suggested they had been beaten to death.

The students' absence was reported by friends after they failed to return to Tokyo on the date they were expected.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service